A Sound of Thunder – The Lesser Key of Solomon
Release Date: September 9th 2014
A Sound of Thunder’s last album Times Arrow was one of my favorite albums of 2013 and I have to say that I was a little nervous about the follow up, 2014’s The Lesser Key of Solomon. Time’s Arrow was a solid, exciting blend of prog and traditional metal never teetering too far into one direction which kept it interesting. With the band’s latest release The Lesser Key of Solomon, A Sound of Thunder just seems to have missed the mark this time around. With that being said, The Lesser Key of Solomon does have some pretty great moments. “Udoroth” opens with a total blow to the dome and I totally found myself feeling that if this song was setting the tone for the album, I was going to be in for a real fucking treat. “Fortuneteller” totally has this kind of Helloween thing going with even a touch of Deep Purple in there but from there things just started to fall flat for me.
“The Boy who Could Fly” totally took a nosedive and left me kind of scratching my head. While I totally enjoy a good ballad, this just isn’t one that I would consider a good one and “Elijah” just seemed so unfocused to me and I just didn’t find myself able to, or really wanting to follow it. Each song from here on out just seemed to trudge on and at times lacking any real oomph and energy. I am one to totally appreciate long, epic songs but unfortunately the 8 ½ minute “The Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb” just didn’t do it for me as it sounded more contrived and unfocused rather than having a natural flow or progression. The nearly 9 minute long closer “House of Bones” on the other hand closed the album out with a surprisingly strong close with its Black Sabbath meets Iron Maiden like changes and progressions. This song proved to be the strongest song on the album besides the first two songs which showed me that all was definitely not lost.
I don’t think I could say that The Lesser Key of Solomon flat out sucked because it didn’t. I just found The Lesser Key of Solomon to be unexciting, unfocused, and uninteresting. Some might say that this one might take a few listens but honestly, after three spins I honestly didn’t feel that excitement, that unbridled passion and energy that I felt when listening to Time’s Arrow even just once. I wanted to like like this album more than I do but the fact of the matter is that I just found it somewhat boring and unmoving. I couldn’t’ help but feel that maybe A Sound of Thunder tried a bit too hard and over thought this one. Maybe they should’ve taken some more time to focus and really plan a more strategic follow up to such a great album. A Sound of Thunder tends to boast about putting out so much music in short amounts of time (I believe they are working another album as we speak) and in my opinion, The Lesser Key of Solomon is proof that quantity does not equal quality. I’d much rather a band take longer periods of time to work on an album in order to put out a top notch product. For as much as A Sound of Thunder hyped this album themselves, I just found it to not meet or stand up to the amount of hype they were giving it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a fan but this time around I just have to say that A Sound of Thunder missed the mark on this one.
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