THUNDER SEVEN

Thunder Seven is, as its title implies, Triumph's seventh studio album. It is a very uneven album with some good moments and many that can be described as mundane and generic. Thunder Seven is also one of Triumph's most eclectic albums. Spellbound has a rather commercial sound with a catchy chorus clearly geared towards radio play. Rock Out, Roll On could perhaps have been a better song than it is with a better chorus and particularly with better lyrics. The lyrics are deadly uninteresting and standard on almost the whole album. Cool Down is a bluesy rocker that sounds like a total Led Zeppelin rip off. The vocals even sound very much like Robert Plant. Like in Led Zeppelin's music there is also a slight Folk influence manifested here in an acoustic break.

Next up is a Pop Metal song with a forgettable chorus and, again, basic Rock 'N' Roll lyrics. All these straightforward Hard Rock songs are becoming quite tiresome at this point and anyone who would have given up on Thunder Seven after its first four songs might be forgiven. But it gets better! Time Goes By is actually a very good song and here the vocals strongly evoke Steve Perry of Journey. Still even this song will probably not impress the average Prog Rock fan despite its strong melody and its Ritchie Blackmore-like, Neo-Classical solo! Still, it is easily the album's best song.

You cannot accuse Triumph of being original as they often sound like other bands. But they do have a tendency to surprise you when you least expect it! The can create whole albums of boring Hard Rock and then, suddenly, glimpses of creativity and progressive attitude flashes by. On this album these bright moments are represented first by Rik Emmet's Midsummer's Night Dream which is a gorgeous acoustic guitar piece that could have been written and played by Steve Howe or Steve Hackett. This is followed with Time Canon which is an a cappella number full of Queen/Gentle Giant-like harmony vocals! This then leads into the average semi-ballad Killing Time. This song would have fitted perfectly on one of Journey's worst albums! Stranger In A Strange Land is another quite good song with good guitar work and vocals, even the lyrics are decent here. But again, this will certainly not blow the Prog fan away. The album ends with the bluesy instrumental Little Boy Blues.

With several songs about time, you might perhaps say that this album is partly a very loose concept album about time. It has a few good songs and a few short moments showing a progressive mindset. Sadly, the large majority of the material is straightforward and mundane Hard Rock numbers. Triumph never made a great album, but they made better ones than Thunder Seven, both before and after.

Only for fans and collectors

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