Album Review: Thundermother – Heat Wave Deluxe Edition
– By Rob Jones –
The band Thundermother is a truly rare case in music. They started out as a five-member group and put out two extremely good albums before everyone but one of the guitar players quit the band. This would be enough to bury most bands.
Nevertheless, guitarist/band founder Filippa Nassil resurrected Thundermother as a four-piece lineup with all new members and not only maintained their, highly AC/DC-influenced sound the band is known for but are pushing their sound to new heights.
The standard version of Heatwave came out last year and is regarded by many in the hard rock world as one of the best albums for the year. So how do you take an already incredible album and make it better? Rerelease it with a few new songs, acoustic versions, and live recordings.
Everything about this album just hits all the right spots, excellent playing and songwriting, frankly incredible singing from powerhouse vocalist Guernica Mancini, great production and mixing, and a more diverse collection of songs than their usual albums have.
While the sound of the album owes a debt to 70s Hard Rock, it’s far from a throwback album; it’s definitely has a great deal of modern energy.
These songs not only rock hard but have a real groove to them, this is music that will get you moving.
“Loud and Alive” kicks off the album with a song that will likely be a concert anthem that showcases Guernica’s powerful vocals.
“Dog From Hell” has subtle southern rock influences fused with that AC/DC backbone.
“Into The Mud” is Thundermother basically giving you their mission statement as true rock n roll road dogs, the title track would fit with any of the albums the previous lineup recorded.
“Sleep” is the song here that is the curveball, a radio-ready ballad that you wouldn’t expect from this band.
“Driving In Style ” is a charging return to form after the last song and one of those great songs to blast loud in your car, or anywhere for that matter.
Of the new tracks on the deluxe edition, the one that for me really stands out is “You Can’t Handle Me” which rocks and is catchy as hell, in fact, that’s really how I’d sum up this whole album, Thundermother has crafted a masterpiece and the added songs only add to an already incredible album by an incredible band.
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