Seven Thorns – Return to the Past

Seven Thorns is a Danish power metal band whose album “Return to the Past” is out now on Nightmare Records. I usually like the albums Lance King releases on Nightmare Records so I expect I’ll probably like this one too. Let’s spin it up and see what we’ve got.

The first word that springs to mind is melodic. They’ve got melodic down on this album; it practically oozes from the headphones. The second word to come to mind is catchy, which makes sense as melodic and catchy go hand in hand. I’ve mentioned before that some power metal bands take these qualities too far and produce music that is just too sugary for my tastes. This album comes awfully close to crossing that line. It dances up to the edge but stops just short.

The music is fast-paced with lots of drums and guitars and keyboards. I could almost picture these guys playing with an orchestra because the music feels like it wants to be huge and soar across the sky on wings of metal.

The vocals are very well done. Strong and melodic, I picture this guy standing atop a seaside cliff with wind blowing in his hair and belting out the lyrics while extending one reaching arm toward the heavens. Sorry, that sounds a bit corny, but hey, good power metal transports the listener, and I’d say I was just transported to a seaside cliff lol. And since the music has wings, it will swoop down and pick up the singer and fly out over the ocean and onward toward Valhalla. I’m being silly, yes, but I’m not making fun of the band. Those are just the goofy things that go through my head when I hear melodic and emotional music like this. I probably saw “The Never Ending Story” too many times as a lad.

In all seriousness, though, this is a pretty good album. It’s obvious these guys have talent. The songs are great, but I could use a little more oomph on the production. It seems a little thin. These songs seem to want a bigger, thicker, punchier production to really do them justice. That would be truly epic.