Drone
For Torch and Crown

Aired in 1998 was this episode, one of the best of the Star Trek television show. The episode called Drone which was a great and emotional episode onboard the Starship Voyager, an episode I really enjoy watching and it shares its name with this band whom I don’t suspect have named themselves after this episode. They are a drone from Germany who are soon to be releasing their third album which they call For Torch and Crown, it has a look of thrash metal an impression confirmed by the label’s description of them. The drone itself is quite young with less than ten years under its belt and two albums to boost, according to the label quite successful with tours accompanying some big names in the genre and stuff like that. That sounds interesting although I have never heard of these guys before I got this album, which probably only tells you that I don’t really bother to look for news in the metal community but takes on what I get. I will have to say though that I do not think the album cover looks that promising, but then again so didn’t Sin7Sins’ cover and earlier today I gave that album a positive review so why not the drone as well?

Thrash metal, not scrap metal or metal implants but thrash metal. They have a melodic disposition and if you’ve heard countrymen of Perzonal War I would say that you would know rather well about how they sound. Not overly rough but rather heavy, with catchy tunes and quite german. Solid and well made production, nothing spectacular but a very high quality production nonetheless. Not overly varied, it is kept on track through all ten tracks and never deviating from the path established in the first track. Soundwise I would say that it is quite typical for the melodic thrash metal, nothing that really stands out from that. So this drone shows that they know how to create an album that sounds good, the question is wether or not they manage to fill it with memorable songs so that it would also be a good album.

So, is it a drone that will assimilate anyone coming into contact with it or is it just a drone delivering some goods? I would say that I lean towards the latter, it is not good enough to engulf people into its fan base. Still, I would say that this is a good album, no denying that but at the same time it is a bit too much of a perfectionistic album, much like most by countrymen Perzonal War who also often ends up too cautious and perfectionistic and for thrash metal that is a bit of a negative as such album rarely brings out anything special and the same is quite true for this album by Drone. But there are some stuff that is quite memorable on it, like the opening track Format C which I like but the track Burning Storybook is a real Gem and for me a song making it more than worthwhile to listen to the album, not alone but in relation to the good tracks that is around it. There are two tracks memorable and eight good ones that are a bit anonymous, this makes for a good album I would say.

I would say that this album is one that I have come to expect from Metalville, a solid album that is good but it offers nothing unique or different. I would say that Drone’s third album may not earn its name etched in the marble pillar of the albums that has earned themselves a place in the history of rock music, but it is an album that gives you forty minutes of entertainment and that is nothing to dismiss.

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