A Sound of Thunder – Queen of Hell
Release Date: January 29, 2013
A Sound of Thunder reminds me of classic Warlock with a nice shot of NWOBHM injected in there for good measure. Lead vocalist Nina Osegueda has a naturally soulful metal voice that really reminds me of Doro without sounding just like her. She definitely has a voice of her own but let’s not forget the rest of her band who are extremely tight and more than capable of setting a kick ass foundation with some mind blowing double bass drumming and guitars that actually have some feel to them. Feel and groove is something that isn’t always present in all metal albums but A Sound of Thunder manages to couple the heavy aspect with the ability to actually feel and groove in their songs.
The songs on “Queen of Hell” are fun and they sounded absolutely amazing. The opening title track is one of the most current epic pieces of metal awesomeness I’ve heard and Osegueda proves why she’s one of my new favorite metal vocalists. “Hello Nurse” is a fun, tongue-in-cheek number that reminds me of the kind of corny sense of humor that a lot of NWOBHM bands displayed back in the day. With its cheesy spoken dialog and bar room style piano playing it came across almost like a Rocky Horror Picture Show kind of number. When I first saw that they were covering the Ian Gillan era Black Sabbath song “Trashed” I rolled my eyes. In my opinion this was Sabbath at its worse but leave it to A Sound of Thunder to take that song and make it their own. It made me realize that this song is pretty fucking kick ass and totally metal when done out of the context of Sabbath. The only thing I wasn’t 100% sold on was the “other” version of the song “Queen of Hell” featuring guest vocals by Benedictum singer Veronica Freeman. I would’ve preferred to hear another song and to be brutally honest; I don’t like Freeman’s voice at all. I feel like Nina’s voice is way better so why take her out of the mix to feature a subpar vocalist?
Queen of Hell is a fantastic release from another unsung great metal band that I hope many will turn their ears towards. It’s a great platter of face melting metal that every fan of good old fashioned kick ass metal will enjoy. It’s nothing ground breaking or extremely original but that doesn’t take away from its greatness one bit. Queen of Hell is one hell of a fun, blood pumping heavy metal ride that once it’s over you’ll dust yourself off and want to go again.