ThunderBlood is a groove thrash metal band from Australia, releasing their debut album, ‘The Final Beginning’ in 2023.
Founded by former members of Extant, Reaper’s Riddle, and Tabryss – ThunderBlood‘s sound is as diverse as the band member’s backgrounds! If you’re looking to pigeonhole the band into just one style of metal, you can forget it! ThunderBlood is all over the spectrum – from thrash, traditional, and groove metal all the way through to doom, progressive, and a little crossover! The nine songs (plus the intro) on offer are as different to each other as chalk and cheese, black and white, in and out, up and down, left and right! Breathing life into the album, the sub-one minute intro, err, ‘Intro’, is an effects-loaded, fairly scary lead into the album opener proper ‘Mt Carnage’ – opening with a glorious groove-laden riff! And a thunderous gallop reminiscent of traditional heavy metal, the band delivering a barnstorming opening salvo highlighting their carefree, tongue-in-cheek and humorous approach to metal music!
And if you’re expecting every song to sound the same, you can forget that too!
As I said earlier, every song on offer is different to every other one by the proverbial country mile – ‘Gone Are The Days’ a progressive crossover of incredible proportions. More melodious than the previous song, ‘Gone Are The Days’ is a thrashy yet punchy and crunchy crescendo of the late eighties/early nineties Metallica! And with doom laden riffs echoing metal masters and arguably metal inventors Black Sabbath, ‘What You Want’ is a heavy march of menace – the band delivering an opening triple as diverse as the world’s population! And if it’s diverse you’re after, just take a listen to ‘Crocodile Eggs’ – and not even the kind o’ song title you’d expect from a thrash metal band! The main riff reminds me of the theme tune to a favourite childhood cartoon of mine – Roobarb And Custard!
And while not exactly the same, the feel and imagery of a thundering, menacing, and lolloping cartoon character is spot on! Take a listen here. And when you realise the lead character Roobarb has an overactive imagination, the similarity with ThunderBlood and the band’s lyrical direction makes even more sense!
Thundering into sight, ‘No One Left’ is a cacophony of fast-paced metal, adopting one of the heaviest mid-tempo foot stomps you’re ever likely to hear. Blending doom-style riffs with the catchiest of err riffs, the band are in a menacing mood, even introducing the occasional death metal growl! What a blend, displaying the cheeky character of the band perfectly. And the most grooviest of riffs brings ‘Being Unto Death’ to life, the band hammering at the senses with a sublime thrash metal stomp – ‘Being Unto Death’ also displaying the iconic “foot on the monitor” feel of traditional heavy metal. And the band’s tongue-in-cheek humour comes to the fore with ‘Sex And Weed’ bringing a touch of blues rock to the album. Not to mention Southern rock swagger and vocal performance as varied as the album’s music! The march of ‘Sex And Weed’ is extravagant, the punch weighty, the crunch loud, and the catchiness off the fucking charts!
Picking up the pace to deliver a mosh pit-friendly anthem of the tallest order, ThunderBlood scorches the Earth with an electrifying pace – ‘Never Not Rock’ screaming into life with a highly explosive attitude! And with lyrics such as “they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our balls” echoing the iconic Mel Gibson chant from Braveheart (1995), the band is adventurous and overactive.
Yet everything ThunderBlood sings about here is spot on! Everyone will find something to relate to, ‘Never Not Rock’ a sentiment I fully endorse. The final song on the album ‘Cruel Ruin’, is also the longest on offer, clocking in at over six minutes in length! And features the doomiest of all doom riffing on the album, melded with a few death metal growls too – ThunderBlood finishing ‘The Final Beginning’ with a flourish! For mid-song there is an incredible turn of speed, the band throwing in a touch of black metal too!
Overall, a varied and very intriguing album of metal styles, ThunderBlood have produced one of the most unique-sounding albums of the year.
TRACKLIST
Intro
Mt Carnage
Gone Are The Days
What You Want
Crocodile Eggs
No One Left
Being Unto Death
Sex And Weed
Never Not Rock
Cruel Ruin
ThunderBlood: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
