Release Date: July 21st 2023. Record Label: Ripple Music. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
After The Fall: Tracklisting
1. After The Fall
2. New Normal
3. Monolith
4. The Other Side
5. Apocalypse
6. Inner Demon
7. Aberdeen
8. Requiem
Members
Stephen Bishop — guitar and vocals
T.C. Connally — lead guitar
Dave Crow — bass
Jason ‘Shakes’ West — drums
Review:
After The Fall is the new album from San Antonio, Texas Heavy Hitters Thunder Horse and the guys are back in gloriously 1970’s Heavy Rock/Metal fashion with their own troublemaking blend of Doom/Stoner Metal. The album offers a more gloomier style of music compared to their last two albums but there is a gloriously hip and rebellious Psychedelic edge appearing throughout this album.
Opening song After The Fall is quite a dominant style of Classic Doom Metal with a modern wave of Psychedelic Stoner Rock and Fuzzed Out Hard Rock. Thunder Horse have a more AMPED up style of music which allows their music to be quite progressive which appears on the later stages of the song. There’s some wicked extended Progressive grooves that are quite different from the band but still have that wicked sounding 1980’s and 1990’s Heavy Metal feel. The vocals from Stephen are melodic and direct which matches the more adventurous direction and tone of Thunder Horse’s music.
Second track New Normal kicks off with some vintage Hard Rock/Heavy Metal riff wizardry with a kick-ass guitar solo before settling down to allow Stephen make a dramatic entrance with his highly energetic vocals. The song revels in a more DOOM based nature with the Sludgy sounds becoming a bit more seedier and thrash based as time moves on. The song can be quite dramatic but allows Thunder Horse to add new strands of Psychedelics and offer even more sublime classic Heavy Metal guitar solos.
Third song Monolith sees the band play a thrashier style of music inspired by Monster Magnet in places especially when the swirling guitars appear. Thunder Horse soon changes back to that bombastic style of 1980’s flamboyant Heavy Metal with a twinge of Stadium Hard Rock that works amazingly well with their modern day Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal creative persona. The song does have a vibrant FUZZED and Street Doom attitude which mostly appear within Stepehen’s vocals and the great lyrics written for the song.
Fourth song The Other Side is a different side to Thunder Horse with the band playing an Semi Acoustic song which could be described as their “LIGHTER/MOBILE IN THE AIR” style song. Though this is an almost Gothic based track with the subtle lyrics that appear within the track. There’s some impressive Blues Rock guitar sounds which can be quite soothing in places despite the bleak surroundings of the track.
The second half of the album is full-on Doom/Stoner Metal aggression with Thunder Horse leading a more HEAVIER CREATIVE charge on the remaining four tracks held on the album. This part of the album is where things become more atmospheric and even sees Thunder Horse move into the Post-Whatever arena of the underground scene. They still offer their trademark style of Heavy Doomed Out Rock/Metal but there’s more aggression to their music and things become more interesting when the band slow things right down for a more claustrophobic style of Psychedelic nature to appear on tracks such as Apocalypse, Inner Demon and Requiem.
After The Fall is another wickedly entertaining album from Thunder Horse who are fastly becoming one of the premier Doom/Stoner Metal bands from the famed Texas scene. This album sees the band taking bolder creative risks with their music and offering some of the heaviest, finest and most interesting sounds they’ve released to date.
With the band continuing their relationship with one of the best labels from the Heavy Rock Underground scene, the one and only Ripple Music, you know this album has amazing production values and sounds sublime from start to finish.
After The Fall is an absolute MONSTER of an album. Play this album as LOUD AS YOU CAN.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo.
After The Fall is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl from July 21st 2023 via Ripple Music
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