#VAGABONDZREVIEW: Thy Kingdom Will Burn - FULL ALBUM REVIEW
- Jun 18, 2021
- 8 min read
Friday is always worthy waiting for but this Friday, June 18 was really special to come because today we have full-length Thy Kingdom Will Burn debut album available at all streaming platforms. Yeah, that was DEFINETELY worthy waiting for.
Thy Kingdom Will Burn is a Finnish melodic death metal band from Kouvola. The band was formed by the songwriter, vocalist and guitar player Sami Kujala after burying his band Serpent Sun in 2016. His participation as bass player in To/Die/For in 2014-2016 is also a point to notice and I’ve personally seen that last To/Die/For line-up performing live. It sounded incredibly massive and Sami Kujala has great playing skills both as guitar and bass player. Sami called his ex-bandmates Jussi Virén (guitar) and Lauri Virén (drums) from Wiréns band to join his new project and later the bass playing duties were taken by Janne Ruuskanen.
For five years of existence Thy Kingdom Will Burn band released two EPs each containing three songs. Last year the self-titled debut album was announced to be released in June 2021 via Italian label Scarlet Records.
In previous blogposts we spoke about Follow The Fallen single from Thy Kingdom Will Burn debut album and needless to say it sounded pretty impressive and had catchy chorus. Having the sound of traditional melodic death metal, the single demonstates perfect capabilities of Finnish bands to work with this heavy metal subgenre that is extremely popular nowadays as in Finland as worldwide.
Now I'm about to listen to the whole album and share my thoughts of that one. Feeling too excited for that!
Although I've been impatient to start listening the album, firstly I'm to share the additional information on this one. Thy Kingdom Will Burn self-titled debut album was mixed and mastered by Juho Räihä (SoundSpiral Audio who is also famous for working with Finnish heavy metal bands like To/Die/For, Swallow The Sun, Before The Dawn and Wolfheart). The album contains 10 songs - and two of those are already familiar to a long-term listener of the band. The Black River and Unclean songs are taken from the second Thy Kingdom Will Burn EP called Unclean released in 2018. The debut Thy Kingdom Will Burn album tracklist includes 10 songs.
We start listening with the instrumental opening song called The Awakening which starts with slow drum beat. I like this feeling everytime when start listening to some new album and the opening song sounds like that - slowly, impatiently and every moment we are waiting for something to blow up and to hear real METAL sound. The basement of the song is strengthened by guitar lead part. When start listening to a song I always pay attention to drums sound quality and here it sounds lively, clean and especially I like the fact there’s much space in drums sound. It sounds wide and it's the first step for the song to be really powerful. Finally, it comes to the rhythm guitar that balances the whole composition and the first song comes into the second one Alone I Stand. It has classic melodic death metal intro stuffed with multi-channel guitar parts and growling and it is to be the official metal beginning of this album. Guitar bridge sounds really powerful. After chorus guitar solo suits the composition very well adding good melodics. Then it comes to the second guitar solo that is splitted in two parts. The bridge after solo is so powerful but honestly I didn’t expect song to end in that very moment.
Then it comes to the song we had a chance to hear this year. For sure Follow The Fallen is the brightest song of the album and it was the first song released from this debut album. Comparing to Alone I Stand its more melodic we hear that idea in verses first and developing of that in chorus. To my mind it has real potential to become hit. The main part of the album is continuing to develop with sharp and wild Rise Against that was also already heard earlier. It has become the first official music video for the album. The usage of artificial hammers in riffs in my favorite element in playing and sometimes composing own riffs. It adds some aggressiveness but always the riff sounds more special when you use them. There’re also lead solo part in chorus and I guess those melodic insertions is my favorite element in Thy Kingdom Will Burn music. Ending of chorus with growls combined with torn palm mute riff add more wildness and adrenaline especially during the live concert. I like space in drum track. When I expected song to end there came another solo. I really like that fast alternate picking in the end.
The Black River is familiar song for me as far as I’ve listened to both previously released EPs and this song is taken from the second one called Unclean (2018). The intro of the song has typical Finnish mood and it makes me really homesick. Listening to that melodies made me remember beautiful Finnish nature and state of happiness and being alive when I lived there. Thank to this amazing band for making me feel that again even being far away from Finland. I really like the usage of clean guitar sound that adds up to the song mood filling that with calmness and serenity which makes you feeling relaxed and creates warm and cozy feeling deep indise your soul. The song has heavier part also that starts with slow Finnish-style heavy bridge. Combination of both kinds of vocals suits the song nicely because we remember how it started. Before we had that element only in Follow The Fallen. The growling combined with a bit blurred crashes creates really good part for this song.
The melancholic and heavy The Black River turns into versitile In Company of Wolves. The song starts with lead guitar part and to my mind such opening for the song can never be bad because it's the best way to catch the listeners' attention even during the first listening of the album. According to the genre some parts of this song sound close to thrash metal that is created by growling vocals combined with fast tempo drums. After this even a bit unexpectable thrash metal opening we hear melodic death metal again. The usage of artificial hammers in riffs is great once again. Intro and chorus are the parts demonstrating versitility of the song adding thrash metal elements and they are are the fastest ones of the album. They bring us real thrash metal atmosphere. Another element adding heaviness and adrenaline is distant palm mute greatly complimemned with crashes.
Unclean is second familiar song I’ve heard earlier in 2nd Thy Kingdom Will Burn EP. The arrangement of the song wasn't changed but it was painted with the debut album shade to match the whole record. Comparing to previous Unclean version the melodics are more highlighted here. Palm mute part with vocals. In chorus we hear choir "Unclean!" singing but to my mind there's not enough space and wideness at those moments. The solo thematically suits more to album mood we heard another one before in EP. It is also very versatile song that sounds cool in both variants and I even can’t choose one.
The really nice surprise and truly one of the greatest things of the album is beautiful song called Through The Storm. From the very beginning I got that that song would be radically differ from the rest of the album and it's has much slower tempo comparing to rest of the songs. This captivating keyboards intro adds magic to the music and makes it totally breathtaking. It's real Finnish song that captures and doesn’t let to stop listening. Lyrics are perfectly compliment the music lead guitar parts are again sounds amazing. The only thing that strickes the ear is moments when keys stop playing. To my mind they could have created the full song basement dominating the structure more and not being used as separate parts only. The keybords melody was composed by To/Die/For vocalist and songwriter Jape Perätalo who can create really catchy melodies.
Closer to end of the record there's the song called War!. The riff here is both heavy and melodic that is highlighted by bends. The riff was written by the band's guitar player Jussi Virén. Beginning of verse starts with choirs and against my will it brings strong association with Children of Bodom music. I really liked that element in their I Worship Chaos, especially you can hear good example of those in the song My Bodom (I’m Not The Only One). There were many guest vocalists invited to record those parts and they sound more spacial and stronger. This is only weakness of this song but still it brings great deal of energy and the idea of adding such pecularity is great.
Season Of Sorrow is the last song of the album. It has many leads and I like that again. Fast drums in verse, faster than on other songs on the album. It was truly hit chorus, sounds cleaner. I like the solo that. After solo bridge creates really good moment to clap your hands and I'd definetely do this thing if listening to this one live.
Talking about the album as a whole it's has remarkable sound and all songs sound like the part of the album going in right order and having the same atmosphere. The peculiarity I personally find effective for that album is really big deal of space in drums tracks recorded. I like how reverberation works with all kinds of drums, so can make a conclusion that drum sound was built in proper and talented way. It greatly points out those tracks being essential element of melodic death metal.
The vocals sound really cool throughout all songs of the album. Personally the thing that caught me the most is clean vocals part in The Black River that takes the first half of the song. If someone says only growling/screaming vocal should be used in melodic death metal, I say hell no. There’s plenty of compositions as part of this genre where cleans ones were used alone or in combination with growling/screaming ones and they certainly add versatility and variability to the record and shows that the band is ready to develop their sounds adding such elements. I already noticed Children of Bodom’s I Worship Chaos and needless to say how breathtaking whispering clean vocals sound in All For Nothing. The only thing in vocals that need some polishing up a bit is choir parts in War! and Unclean chorus.
Undoubtedly, greatly written lead guitar parts are also worthy mentioning. The ones grabbed my attention the most of all are the parts from Follow The Fallen that continue dominating whole song making it so special. Also I’d like to pick out Unclean with its sharp riff and great palm mute usage. In Company of Wolves has fastened and speedy guitars closing them with thrash metal songs and lead solo in the beginning of this one is just captivating and melodics wise. The band uses artificial hammers in some riffs and it is also one of the most favorite element in guitar sound. One more thing I want to point out is that I UNREALLY liked the bridges between song and song parts in whole album. It's really important thing in creating the entire album sound.
Making a conclusion I’d personally like to hear more keyboard lead parts as Through The Storm has and in some cases it’s nice to make common solo for keys and guitar that adds up to melodics more. There would be also great to make double guitar solos, because usually it grabs attention so well both holding the listeners’ attention. It can help to highlight some moments in melodic part of song and it’s the best way of expressing feelings especially in some ballads.
For all album listening time I haven’t had a single thought of skipping the song or stopping play that. There were couple of moments when I scrolled back in order to hear some element better. The main conclusion I can make is that Thy Kingdom Will Burn has all chances to become great representers of Finnish melodic death metal as one of the leading genres in the country nowadays. The album is worthy listening and re-listening not only once.
Thanks everyone for reading this review and the biggest thanks to Thy Kingdom Will Burn for their hard work on writing and releasing this album. To tell the truth I haven't been inspired like that for a while listening to the new music. Hopefully, I'll see this killer band live someday and enjoy the same songs performed live.
THY KINGDOM WILL BURN (2021)
Tracklist:
1. The Awakening
2. Alone I Stand
3. Follow The Fallen
4. Rise Against
5. The Black River
6. In Company Of Wolves
7. Unclean
8. Through The Storm
9. War!
10. Season Of Sorrow
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