Unleash the Fire

I heard about Thronar a few years ago while looking through the archives. They were being recommended for their epic nature or something of the like. Luckily for me, ‘Unleash the Fire’ was due to be released the same month that I found out about them. I went into this album with relatively high expectations based off of the reviews for their debut and these guys did not fail to deliver, this album is amazing.

The album starts off with the song Prelude to War, the perfect opener for an album of this style. There is a narration over horns and soft keyboards. Eventually it builds up into the second track Shield to Shield, which is a track filled with furious blast beats and a great mixture of great harsh and clean vocals. After Shield to Shield the album has one great song after another, going all the way to the closer Final War (Unleash the Fire).

I don’t want to waste your time describing each track because you need to hear this album for yourself. Each song has great qualities to it and has great musicianship from all of the members of the band. Each instrument seems to complement each other very well. When the guitars are shredding and the song takes a heavier approach, the drums become furious and much more apparent to the listener. During the slower parts of a song, the keyboards are present and add a nice melody to each of the songs.

The vocals are quite good on this album as well. The harsh vocals are great and the clean vocals are a nice addition as well. When I say clean vocals, I’m not referring to something that you would hear off of a power metal album, they still have a rougher edge to them. The lyrics of the album itself concern battle, fantasy, and history, which is something that certainly does not detract from the value of ‘Unleash the Fire’.

Overall I must say that this is quite an amazing album. Though I have unfortunately not heard Thronar’s debut, I cannot say whether or not this album sounds or is structured like the debut. However, I can say that you will not be disappointed if you pick up this album. It’s a great listen from start to finish and is well worth many listens.

It’s been about three years since their first album; finally the Dutch barbarians are back with another and after listening to it, I deem them to be as competent as ever. Continuing with a style that could perhaps be described as Ensiferum meets Amon Amarth, ‘Unleash the Fire,’ is, for all intents and purposes, just as godly as the debut, ‘For Death and Glory.’

On ‘Unleash the Fire’ you’ll find everything that was golden on their last album; the shredding death metal guitars, the skin-ripping drums, the sweeping brass and harpsichordish instruments courtesy of the synthesizer, the clean vocals and manly choirs, the rich harsh vocals, the original, melodic composition of the songs, and, of course, the awesome historic/fantastical lyrics involving the strength of heroic barbarians and the like.

One could argue that they used essentially the same formula on ‘Unleash the Fire’ as they did on their debut. Personally, I’m glad that they did. That formula relied on originality; each of the songs on this album, as on the previous album, are infused with a freshness that reeks of quality and keeps them enjoyable and, as on the previous album, in choosing a favourite song, every one is fair game. On an unrelated note, ‘Unleash the Fire’ has more violin.

If I happen to prefer their debut by a small degree, it is merely due to the pure novelty that I associate with it, after all, experiencing Thronar for the first time is undoubtedly incomparable. ‘Unleash the Fire’ definitely meets the standard Thronar set with ‘For Death and Glory.’ I highly recommend both albums as you should not deny yourself the pleasure of either one. (I have been looking for this album ever since its release and eventually I found it in the iTunes store. Not the same as owning the CD, but still worth it.)