As soon as the intro to Tormented No More started, I thought “Ooohhh Yessss! Here we go, Melodic Speed/Power Metal, my favourite.” Finger flying sweep-picking punctuated by crashing cymbals and power chords, the first verse started and …… WTF??? The drums are firing on something like 400 beats per minute, the guitars on 200 and the vocals are singing a ballad at about 50 bpm. The vocals and guitars seem to work out fine together, same for the guitars and drums, but the vocals and drums just do not mesh at all; you don’t really expect fast double kicking in a ballad and the force and speed he batters the snare is quite perplexing. In between each vocal line, where drummer, Joonas Pykälä-aho, stops beating the snare to death to blast round the kit, it all fits into place and actually sounds very good. I think what you first hear vocally is the chorus as it’s played three times through the track. The layout seems to go – Chorus – Verse – Verse – Chorus – Verse – Half Verse – Chorus. If Thaurorod’s intention was to be completely different, they’ve definitely scored there! At first, when I heard the frantic drumming, I thought I had somehow ripped the track to my PC over the top of something else. Now, after listening to it many, many times and with all my time playing in bands, working with bands and, more recently, recording bands, there is a voice in my head screaming “This is wrong!” It actually sound like they first laid down the drum and bass guitar tracks, which is normal, added the guitars and keyboard tracks then brought in vocalist, Vladimir Lumi, who had been absent for the whole of this process, and had him sing along to either a ‘Click Track’ or just guitars. In most bands you will find that invariably it’s the drummer that dictates the tempo of each song, Thaurorod has decided to do away with this and have everyone go whatever tempo they wish; now and again they get it in rhythm. Have you ever driven down a road where they are digging up the carriageway and there are a long row of flashing lights to stop you driving into the trench; all the lights will be flashing randomly, but every now and again you will see a definite pattern; that is as close as I can get to describing, visually, what my ears are hearing. And, just like the road-works with the flashing lights, the digging machines, the men standing around leaning on shovels, it’s all very off-putting and disconcerting.

Track two, Tales Of The End, starts off very nicely indeed. Emmi Taipale plays a hauntingly melodic keyboard piece joined four bars in by guitars and some good, technical drumming with some triplet type footwork rather than the all-out machine gun blast that comes with the first verse. Yes, there it is again, Vladimir Lumi comes in with his hymnal ballad and the drums go haring off like his kit is on fire and he’s trying to beat out the flames. Admittedly, things don’t sound so disjointed as the first track and you kinda get some idea of what they’re trying to do; unfortunately it then all falls apart in the two verse chorus. I have a ten dollar Rolex I bought in a bazaar in Cairo that has better time keeping. Drums change gear and go haring off into the sunset while vocals have to put in some strange pauses and annunciations to make the words fit the music. The instrumental bridge between chorus and verse is excellent; keys harmonising with the guitars and drums playing a good beat with some nice triplet kicks. It sounds here that they are playing to a 3/4 beat rather than the usual 4/4, don’t know what difference it makes in the Thaurorod scheme of things, it’s just something else unusual in their music. The guitar solo in this track is also very good. It flows with the rhythm of the music, not a ‘Look what I can do’ blistered on piece of self gratifying guitaring. Although things are a little more in sync on Tales Of The End this is another disjointed and disconcerting track leaving me confused and bemused.

Elämän Tuli, the final track of the demo, starts off extremely well with another haunting piano/keys intro, power chord guitar harmonies and sensible drumming taking you into the first verse; which, for Thaurorod, is quite reined in. The vocals are still hymnal, strong and powerful; sung in their native Finnish. There is an instrumental interlude, which takes up the second quarter of the track that starts off before the end of the verse which, again, really mucks up the flow of the vocals. This interlude, on its own is amazing stuff, but, bears no musical relationship with the rest of the song; it’s like it couldn’t wait for the singer to stop and just headed off in its own direction at a great rate of knots. The last quarter of the track sees it all coming together again finishing in the same vein as the start. Once it’s all over, you kinda sit there, stunned, wondering what the hell was all that about? It’s like the drummer, the guitarists and the singer have all been sent to separate rooms to practice songs they’ve only heard once, came back together into the studio, a couple of day later, and recorder what they had been practicing – Nothing fits!

Things on the plus side are - Vocalist Vladimir Lumi has a strong, powerful voice that comes across clear and almost hymnal, like something you would hear leading a choir. Before seeing him on the Thaurorod website, I had an image of someone older, someone like Falconer’s Mathias Blad. He sings with this air of confidence and poise that makes it sound like he has been doing this for a long time. The guitaring, when not led astray by he drummer is good stuff. Melodic, technical, good harmonies, excellent soloing and catchy riffs. What really messes it all up is the over-exuberant drummer. Keep him off the caffeine, slip him some Valium or something, just wind him in; I mean, blastbeats and machine gun double kicking in a ballad, c’mon! Thaurorod could have the makings of a good Power Ballad band but they have to stand back and listen to themselves and see where they are going astray. Someone has to take charge and direct what’s going on cos at the moment, they’re just a bunch of musicians all doing their own thing, which would be fine if everyone’s thing was the same, but it isn’t, and it’s not working. Go to the Thaurorod Website and listen to the samples and you will hear what I mean.