THY KINGDOM WILL BURN is a melodic death metal act from Kouvola, Finland, which was formed in 2016 by guitarist and main songwriter Sami Kujala after he had buried his former band, SERPENT SUN. With guitarist Jussi Virén, bassist Janne Ruuskanen, and Lauri Virén on drums, he found new partners in crime to envision his idea of playing in a more aggressive style, which can now be heard on their self-titled debut album, released on June 18th, 2021, via Scarlet Records. The promo comes with some praise about “one of the most promising European metal underground acts,” so let’s see if this can be confirmed by the music.
After an unsurprising intro, “Alone I Stand” gives a first impression of what we’ll get from this quartet: the offered ingredients fulfill the genre standard with heavy guitar and drum work, as well as alternating clean and harsh vocals, of which the latter do not always fit to the music. Next up is “Follow the Fallen,” starting with a cool riff and rhythm, but then develops with a certain monotony – mainly caused by the too-dominant, stomping drums and the screamed/growled vocals – and so does “Rise Against.” A change of pace and mood comes with the more balladic “The Black River,” but in the middle, they’re back into the same fairway as before. “In Company of Wolves” opens fittingly with a wolf howling, then drifts into the death metal direction for a moment, just to return again to that same well-known path. Over the last two songs, the rhythm section gets busier and there is more variation in the song-writing, but as soon as the vocals join, the music sounds too similar to the rest of the album.
Altogether, THY KINGDOM WILL BURN deliver a solid debut, but nothing beyond. Most of the songs start promising, with a cool riff or groove, but get too repetitive afterwards. While the music and vocals sometimes don’t fit together during the verses, the catchy choruses are well done. The guitars bring in a good portion of heaviness and deliver some strong, melodic solo parts. Since there are quite a few melodeath bands around, especially in Finland, it’s hard to stand out from the mass and, unfortunately, THY KINGDOM WILL BURN don’t manage to step out of the shadow with their first offering. Nevertheless, fans of the genre will find their moments here.
Written by Katha
Track-List
1. The Awakening
2. Alone I Stand
3. Follow The Fallen
4. Rise Against
5. The Black River
6. In Company of Wolves
7. Unclean
8. Through the Storm
9. War!
10. Season of Sorrow
Lineup
Sami Kujala – vocals and guitar
Jussi Virén – guitar
Janne Ruuskanen – bass
Lauri Virén – drums
Label
Scarlet Records
