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Thunder Tribe: War Chant

Melodic/Heavy/Progressive Metal

4.5/5.0

Facebook
Nightmare Records / Sony / Red
Words by Craig Hartranft
10.11.2013

Vocalist Michael Duncan is a busy guy. While still fronting Kentucky's Pownd, he's taken over the microphone for Shatter Messiah on their latest effort Hail the New Cross. Now with two other members from Pownd, guitarists Ronnie Duncan and Rick Sargent, they've created Thunder Tribe, a heavy metal behemoth. War Chant is their debut album for Nightmare Records. However, here's the curious thing: when you check out the Pownd Facebook 'About' page, this album may have originally been intended as the next Pownd album, Part of the Black. There's a song with that very name here. Is Pownd defunct? More information as it becomes available.

Thunder Tribe: scream.

Perhaps Part of the Black is the best place to start when describing Thunder Tribe. The song, this album, and the band in general delivers very guitar driven classic heavy metal. With this song, guitars do battle laying down a wall a riffage while rolling out constant leads. With the fierce rhythm backing them up, they nearly crush Duncan's vocals.

And he's good vocalist, powerful with a good range from smooth to metal scream. You get the former within The Light, the softest song here pushed by acoustic guitars. You get the latter within Believe, a true power metal number with swift drumming. A mix of vocal range comes on many songs with Echoes of a New Day, a song nearing prog power metal, and Say Goodbye, which opens with trippy guitar riffs that could have been lifted from a late Beatles album.

If you haven't caught it, I've also been trying to give you a taste of the music within. While War Chant is guitar-driven metal, the songs offer a mixture of sounds and textures making this recording something more than mere metal. This may not be strict prog metal akin to Dream Theater or Symphony X, but the band certainly has a creative approach. This approach allows for something as diverse and eclectic from it's context like the blues groove of the light acoustic driven Above The Blue. It could be the best song here. There's much to enjoy with War Chant, and much to explore. Easily recommended.

BTW: if you travel over to the Thunder Tribe Facebook page, check out the 'About' section. There you'll discover a list of 45 cover tunes, from Aerosmith to WASP, that the band could include in it's live set. It will also give you a hint of their many influences.

Thunder Tribe - Part of the Black

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Thunder Tribe's War Chant is an encouraging start for the band, an album of creative guitar-driven heavy with a few twists.

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