THUNDER SEVEN

I hate to come down so hard on these guys, but if Triumph are going to be included on this site, they need to come under serious scrutiny. I don't even intend to judge them as a prog band (after all, they are placed in the prog-related category), but on their own merits.

Side 1 offers up 3 songs that veer uncomfortably between wimpy AOR and watered- down lite-metal. The other song on the side, "Cool Down", is a 3rd rate Led Zeppelin-ish rocker, having no more reason to exist than Fastway and Kingdom Come (two other bands who borrowed liberally from L.Z.). There's no real ambition to write original tunes, as many of these ideas sound very familiar, even if FM radio rock isn't your thing. The only difference is that these songs never wore out their welcome on radio.

The second side doesn't get any better. "Time Goes By" shows Rik Emmett sounding very close to Geddy Lee, vocally, and though he always got the comparisons, sometimes it was unfair to both men. Not here. The song is actually the best on the album, with an ambitious arrangement and excellent guitar solo, but it's a dim light in a mire of terrible songs. Two shorts segues follow: a classical guitar exercise, and the a capella "Time Canon", which might've been impressive if we hadn't heard this done a million times better by Gentle Giant (and Queen in "The Prophet Song"). And that's where the prog relation begins and ends, as the final three tracks take us back to the genericness of the first side.

There's so much talent here, but I'm sorry, I just don't "get" Triumph and I probably never will. I've come into contact with their music several times in the last 25 years and I have to sympathize with Rush that this Canadian trio used to get dubbed as a "poor man's Rush" from some critics...that's just insulting to Rush. The album cover's pretty cool though.