Thunderous Jones come good with the long-awaited, some might say ‘show stopping’, debut album.

Release Date: 16th December 2022

Label: independent

Format: digital

How good is it to finally be able to say here’s the new album from Thunderous Jones!?

Exile, Shoot To Kill, Fallen/Choked, Out Of Sight. The singles have come at a steady rate throughout 2021 and 2022, keeping up the profile. Bloodstock ’21, Kerrang! Radio and a collaboration with Johnny Doom have all played their part in helping build the expectation.

The fire and fury of Time To Die together with a Met reference with the “if I die before before I wake” line suggests a sense that they’ve poured everything into this song yet we’re only at the start of the sequence. Indeed, it may even be a primal scream of an outpouring that finally we’re into an album sequence. Partnered with Shoot To Kill and State Of Mind, it’s a real blitzkrieg of an opening (and exhausting) flurry. The former manages to soften the blow somewhat with the pace and aggression in the vocals tempered by a couple of languid moments that provide a haven of peace alongside the the violence and gruffness of the main vocal parts. Want contrast? Add a snaking ethnic guitar solo and you certainly got it.

Exile of course, was a track we particularly enjoyed in the build up to the album. The tempos are more relaxed but it’s posisbly the most brooding track on the album. Gateway track maybe but a touch of the growls reminds us of the core Thunderous Jones values. It fits into a finale that see TJ channeling a bit of Papa Het on Let Go (Give Me A Break) along with a balance of searing and shrill guitar. Further balance comes with L.E.S.L.E.Y that creeps in with a n unexpected orchestral ambince. Thunderous Jones become Sigur Ros briefly in a sensitive side that extends to the title track which may have proved an interesting segue had the two not been separated by Exile. An epic that deserved the honur of providing the album title, where the earlier ferocity and aggression is replaced by an epic majesty that you may have guessed they didnlt have in them. Over nine minutes they travel a series of passages from the grandiosity of a spoken word delivery that heads into to a heavy and funkier direction complete with one last portion of intensity.

And so ends the first lesson. Those heavier roots which of which we’d been made well aware iover the past eighteen months are just one side of a multi-facetted coin that’s displayed with a precision and succinctness while the passion remains the same on Stop The Show. Ditch any exectations and enjoy the bigger picture.

Here’s our favourite of the singles, Exile:

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