Thunder
Robert Johnson’s Tombstone

February 2007
Released: 2006, Frontiers Records/Zink Music
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Finally, one of England’s strongest acts is back with a brand new studio album. Their last album THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN wasn’t very strong when it came to the material. One of the band’s best albums of all time is still their debut. Thunder still plays the same classic English hard rock mixed with 70’s retro-rock that they’ve always played. Even if their last album wasn’t a smash-hit it was still fun to hear that the members enjoyed playing again; but where THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN failed this new album succeeds.



The band rocks through 11 solid, strong tracks, except for the ones about love: the ballads. “Robert Johnson’s Tombstone” and “The Devil Made Me Do It” are two explosive 70’s retro-rock tunes with enormous power and vitality. Classic English rock can be found in “Dirty Dream”, “Last Man Standing”, “Andy Warhol Said”, “What A Beautiful Day”, and “Stubborn Kinda Love”. “A Million Faces”, “My Darkest Hour”, “It’s All About You”, and “Don’t Wanna Talk About Love” are a few classic Thunder ballads. The first ones are acoustic, and Danny Bowes sings impressively. The first track is an up-tempo ballad. Even though the ballads are great, I think they have too many of them and that drags down the rating a bit.



As a whole, this album is great fun to listen to and it’s really hard to beat Thunder when they sound like this. There isn’t anything to complain about except for the ballads. Aside from those, Thunder has done one of their best albums in a while. ROBERT JOHNSON’S TOMBSTONE is damn good and I really hope this album results in a worldwide tour.



http://www.zinkmusic.com