The Thunderlords – Noisy Songs For Noisy Kids / 2005 Self / 9 Tracks / http://www.thunderlords.com / [email protected] / Reviewed 22 January 2006

In a sense, The Thunderlords start out pretty much like every other children’s act, with a very sedate friendly style to things. Then, like a lot of those java sites that stay quite for a little before shrieking in order to scare the individual, The Thunderlords kick into full metal mode. There is a period where the two styles exist in harmony for a short period of time, but during tracks like “Old Man Olaf”, the metal side eventually wins out. “I Like Dirt” completely drops the singer-songwriter pretense and goes into a sludge-metal type of sound, with more than a little hint of Megadeth thrown into the mix. Including a few children into the chorus at the end of “I Like Dirt”, there seems to be a greater tie to Thunderlord’s audience.

However, “Ice Cream Headache” does not really expound on the general formula that has started out “Noisy Songs For Noisy Kids”. There seems to be a minor shift in the sound of the disc with “Growl Like A Lion”; what really saves The Thunderlords on this album is that each of the tracks are incredibly short (nothing more than two minutes), and thus are not hindered by immense repetition quite as much as longer songs would be. The first track that could conceivably be thought of as a crossover hit is a very thrashy “Song About Nothing”, which feels influenced by M.O.D. and Verbal Abuse. Even though “Table Manners For Vikings” has a more child-based set of subject material, it really follows “Song About Nothing” admirably for all of the metal fans in the audience.

“Night Of The Living Lunch” is a track that does have that same sort of hooky nature to it, but suffers a little bit from The Thunderlords falling out of the pacing that was previous in the track. “Little Teapot / Big Old Viking” is a nice nod to the original and pretty much keeps with the same tone and style as the children’s classic. The sped-up ending of the track (as weird as it may be to say) is admirable and pit-worthy, while “Eat Vegetables” is a re-tooling of a classic Iron Maiden track. Even though the disc is only twelve minutes, there is little doubt that this will get just as much play as the other albums in all the minivans and bugs of the United States. Fun for all.

Top Track: Eat Vegetables

Rating: 6.2/10

[JMcQ]