Tornado
Commitment to Excellence

Back in 2011 I wrote about the debut album of these Finns who call themselves Tornado, it was a stormy album that I liked quite a bit. Now several years have passed and the band has managed to release an album in 2016 and the vocalist has been used as a face for some anti-bullying campaign and such things. That is probably because the band is a bit political and takes a stance for humanity and against the foul movements that are growing in many of the European societies as well as in the USA. We can hear those things in the songs of this new album as well, so they are a bit political but they are also a thrash metal band.

So, it is thrash metal but with a touch of glam and a touch of sleaze giving it a bit more of a catchy feel to it. Another noticeable thing about Tornado is that the vocal style is a bit less growly and screamy than most thrash, perhaps more snarly or something in that fashion, I like them better than most vocals I hear in the thrash metal genre. And through the eleven tracks of the album we get a decent variation and a sensible playing time, and as another reflection of this album I think that compared with the debut that I reviewed seven years ago it is a more mature album. It feels a bit less spontaneous and a more evolved handiwork than what I heard back when I reviewed the debut album in 2011.

This is a good album; I like the songs and the music on offer. There is no standout song though and that is a slight minus in my view, I also think that the debut album was better. It wasn’t better made; just more exciting, more alive, more personal perhaps, this feels a little bit sanitised and a bit more conventional. But I do think that fans of the band’s earlier album will find this one very appealing, and I do also think that fans of the thrash metal genre will find this quite appealing as well. It may not be as good and exciting as I found the debut to be, but it is still a good album.

So in the end I think that the band has evolved in terms of their ability to produce their album, and the sound that they offer – the sound is better but the album is worse than last time I heard them. It is a solid effort from Tornado who certainly seems to be a band to be reckoned with and their new album can certainly be well worth checking out. Their commitment to excellence has granted us an album that is not excellent but it is good.

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