Sad Symphony

Italy’s Thunderstorm arrived on the doom scene with very little fanfare back in 2000. Sure, Italy is not a country generally known for its doom output, but all the same Thunderstorm’s debut seemed to reach very few ears, which is a shame considering the overall quality of “Sad Symphony”.

Being released on Northwind Records didn’t help either, as they’re known (if you can call it that) for having a roster of unknown, mostly mediocre Italian power metal acts. “Sad Symphony” has a production that sounds like it could work in a power metal setting, but the band plays a sort of epic doom style in the vein of Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus, with slight hints of traditional and power metal sprinkled in here and there. For example, track three, entitled “Time”, is simply not a doom song, despite the mellow middle break. Likewise, “The Prophecy” has more than a little gallop to it, and gets going a little faster than what I’d consider doom metal, but that’s irrelevant. If it’s pure doom you want then try the longer songs such as “Vision of Death” or especially “The Rite”, which methodically plods along, marching ever onward. Throw out the closing piano piece (too short to be memorable) along with the doomy intro (ditto) and you’ve essentially got a very good mixture of epic doom styles, some being influenced, as mentioned, by other forms of metal.

Fabio’s guitar work is dominated by slow, swirling melodies and has a naturally airy, almost fuzzy sound, one that’s in marked contrast to the oppressive “wall of noise” guitar sound many doom bands choose. The bass is buried, making the release less doomy I suppose, as your speakers won’t explode from the strain of recreating the six-ton-heavy sound of, say, an Electric Wizard. All the better to hear the guitars I say. As expected for a doom release, the drums are often minimal, though he does well on the faster parts.

A lot of the charm here is Fabio’s voice. Technically speaking, most of the famous epic doomsters – Rob Lowe, Messiah, and so on – are much stronger, but this guy’s voice has a unique tone to it, perhaps a byproduct of his Italian accent (which can be very noticeable). The requisite gamut of emotions is present, from anger to depair, sadness, and so on. Range varies from a low near-mumble to a soaring high (witness the chorus of “Vision of Death”). He would go on to utilize this piercing scream more on subsequent releases, as it sees only limited use here. Overall the weakest vocal performance of the three Thunderstorm albums, but that’s only because Fabio has gotten better with each one, not because he does poorly here. If you’ve heard their other works, the style is largely similar here.

Fans of the epic doom genre would do well to pick up everything Thunderstorm has done, as they’ve been quite consistent over the years. Doom-death fans – devotees of bands like Evoken and Thergothon – probably won’t care for it, but for those tired of waiting for the next Solitude Aeturnus release, try some Thunderstorm to tide you over. By the way, killer packaging, the band going all out with a foldout cardboard digipack plastered with the lyrics and some cool artwork in the style of the cover art.