With myriads of Metal bands out there it isn’t really surprising that chances are high missing the one or the other great, yet unknown, band. Thanks to a friend of mine who is always fishing in the waters of the underground scene, I luckily got to know the band THUNDER RIDER, a small but shining piece of great Epic Metal. Though founded already in 1980 this release from 2004 named Tales Of Darkness & Light Chapter II is only the second (!) album by these guys from Canada.
Tales Of Darkness & Light Chapter II is a real cornucopia of authentic and original Metal, played in a quite unique style. Basically THUNDER RIDER plays epic Heavy Metal in the vein of old Manowar (Into Glory Ride etc.) and also a bit comparable to bands like Overlorde and Doomsword. What distinguishes THUNDER RIDER from these is for one thing a dose of really “colorful” keyboards pending between soundtrack-like bombast and fitting background entourage. Another “specialty” is a rather dry and quite bass driven sound and even some slight Prog influences, which in addition with some keyboard passages remind me even a little bit of very old Marillion stuff (think of Grendel, Forgotten Sons, She Chameleon, He Knows You Know etc.).
But by far the greatest “specialty” is definitely the voice of John Blackwing (great name!), who sings in a very unique and strange way I can only compare to Manilla Road’s Mark Shelton, whose band can also be put to the list of influences. John’s voice surely is a thing one has to get used to but if this is done it suits just perfectly to the overall music and sound.
Though the keyboards and bass are quite present the main instrumentation clearly is made up by the guitars, which come along with a lot of cool riffs, great melodies and some really awesome solos. It is also very comfortable that the epic feel of songs is mainly build up by the vocals and the songs themselves are kept “un-epic” short and mostly pending between three and five minutes.
Well, sometimes the created atmosphere of some songs may come to end a bit too early but on the other hand the songs on Tales Of Darkness & Light Chapter II are kept quite fresh and crisp by THUNDER RIDER. Ok – not every song is a killer and now and then a refrain sounds a bit unvaried and flat but all in all this album is really great and full of true and honest Metal far from clichés and (listen to the last “track”) even with a dose of self-irony.
Just take extraordinary songs like Thy Kingdom Come (fantastic bombast intro), First Born (great keyboard break), Holy Terror (with the mentioned Marillion/Grendel-like prog influence) or the brilliant Heavy Metal Wizzard, which combines all of THUNDER RIDER’s various characteristics.
Surely opinions towards the vocals will differ, but those who can not only tolerate but start to like or love them, will receive a top-notch Metal and should get themselves this small and shining gem. I personally am really enjoying Tales Of Darkness & Light Chapter II and hope that Chapter III won’t take another decade or longer (Chapter I was released in 1987) to come to life.
Highly recommended!