When Stratovarius meets Pretty Maids, you'd better buckle up your seat belt my friends, cause you're in for a ride. Thunderstone comes back with their debut album. Why back ? Because it wasn't long ago since I reviewed their demo material from 2001. Well the band found a label, and with their quality demo I'm sure they actually had plenty to chose from.

The album contains the 5 tracks on the demo, but of course all that has been re-recorded and re-mixed to a more "final" sound. The result is absolutely brilliant. Their production is near perfection already on this debut album. The keyboards are the ones that seems to have been reworked quite a lot, reminding more Sonata Arctica than Stratovarius on the new songs. Vocals have are also more impressive, with more power to them and with impressive work done on the choirs giving a more epic sound to the songs. The album contains 4 new songs I had never heard before, and those are absolutely excellent, I feared there would be some fillers aside from the 5 jewels from the demo, but it's not the case. The new songs are absolutely brilliant, melodic to the bones; a real pleasure for my ears. Heavy riffs and steady rhythm section, catchy melodies and incredible / epic choruses are the formula to achieve what I call an excellent album. This debut album is a real demonstration on how to make melodic metal Songs like Let The Demons Free, Me, My Enemy, Will To Power (simply unbelievable song !), Eyes Of A Stranger, Like Father Like Son (with Timo Tolkki plying the solo as guest musician on this one), are all killing machines that will explode your brain and will soon add to your collection of classics. As per ballads, the closer song Spread My Wings is absoluetly stunning now with the epic choirs and fabulous production, I could almost not recognize it compared to the demo version ! Simply the perfect way to end the album with a wonderful ballad at the end (who said Hammerfall - Glory To The Brave ?). Another ballad (mid-tempo) is World's Cry and then again this song is a killer and it displays the already advanced song writing talent of these guys.

I didn't expect Thunderstone to come back with a full length album ready so quickly, and it's a more than pleasant surprise. This band has an enormous potential and this album shows how great this potential is used. They may not have invented anything new, but still they play a wonderful melodic metal. If you like bands like Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius, then don't miss Thunderstone debut album for the world ! I'm looking forward to listen to a second album and also to see the guys on tour. Congratulations for this amazing debut !