THRONES

SOL INVICTUS maintained its prolificity into the early 2000s, but the magic of the mid to late 1990s seems well past unfortunately. "Thrones" seems like a contractual obligation album in quality, with a few highlights that cannot even reach visual range of the base camps of previous peaks.

With three out of the first tracks being instrumental, and with virtually NO good argument in favor of Tony Wakeford's voice, one would think this propitious, and in fact "Gods" is another fine album opening, reprised as is tradition with an even better vocal version at the end of the original album proper. "Gonsville" is mildly worthwhile in an ambient sort of way, and with the title cut added forms a single meditative piece with connectors. As for "Do and Say", "Then He Killed Her", and "In God we Trust", calling them variations on a theme is partly accurate in that there is just one theme and it is insistent and self important, with a certain jazz influence offering what limited added value I can discern. However, the demo version of the latter is far superior, shrouding the mantra in a violinic haze that makes the lyrics seem far more profound. The hand claps are a nice touch but apparently were not deemed in character with the project's ethos, and I can't argue with that, but darn they sound fun.

"Thrones" certainly doesn't rank among SOL INVICTUS royalty but apparently it does have its fans, so perhaps I'm just pining for a few more of those majestic works of art that appeared less than 10 years earlier and seem very distant in 2002.