Hammersound Records - 2013
I freely admit to not listening to much power metal. There are a few bands here and there I enjoy but ultimately it's bogged down by two factors for me: the ultra-high vocal registers of many of the frontmen (and women) and the lack of aggressive riffs. Enter Thunder and Lightning, whom I found on Twitter of all places! I was drawn in by the cover art, as there aren't a number of comic book-ish covers that I've seen lately so I went to their bandcamp page and gave it a shot.
Low and behold, In Charge of the Scythe suffers from neither of the subgenre's two pitfalls I described earlier. First, the vocals of Norman Dittmar never reach those high falsettos that grate my nerves, instead providing some bellowing power and charisma. He can belt out a great heavy chorus like in the title track or "Soldier's Tired Eyes" yet keeps the ballad-y beginning of "Two Sons in My Sky" from from reaching cheesiness and providing some genuine emotion. The guitar section of Dammrich and Wustenhagen provide some punishing crunch to a barrage of power and classic metal riffs. Some songs like "The Unborn Truth" and "Booster Shot" have some real neck-breaking riffs in them and will certainly appeal to some of the fans of thrashier power metal such as Rage. I also like that the drums are more thunderous (pun intended) than on many similar bands and makes the overall assault more intense.
All in all, this is a great songwriting package. There isn't a chorus here that fails to hit it's mark, a lead or solo that fails to grab your attention, or riff that fails to get the neck muscles moving. This is unfortunate, because this is the 4th album they have released and it seems they should really have a larger fan base at this point. As far as I'm concerned, you won't find a better power metal album this year! If it's strong enough to convince a non-power metal regular, that has to say something about the overall quality of the material right? Strongly recommended!
Thunder and Lightning Bandcamp page
The Unborn Truth
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