Thanos - The Mad King Review

Sometimes band name and album tittle do deceive. Well, this is not a hard science. The odds to be wrong do exist however to be right isn’t that rare. My dear child of the night knows that most of the time my bets are right. Thanos with “The Mad King” do sound as a Power Metal band. Not this time. What my dear child of the night will have here is a band that plays a Prog Metal that addresses to Queensrÿche and their finesse. Thanos here do exactly what I always say about Prog Metal bands. That is the following; most of the time they bounce more to Prog than the Metal; other times they bounce more to Metal than to Prog. That is “The Mad King” an album that really knows how to bounce both influences and got very right with them all though its album opener “Mad King” sound much more Metal than Prog and could give the fan a wrong feeling. From it on the album grows on the Prog and bouncing both. As my dear child of the ngiht might remember, Thanos sophomore album “Unholy” was reviewed here. “The Mad King” follows the same path.

Two tracks are much more Prog than Metal in the album and they are “Breaking Point” and “In Your Arms” – this one aside the cheesy tittle has a very nice piano in the intro with a vocal orchestration that leaves no doubt about Prog Influences. “Breaking Point” is more acoustic with lots of the Queensrÿche’s finess I talked about. It’s the track which shows a lot of the Prog Rock influence Thanos do have. It sounds as a ballad and it’s really a ballad from top to bottom. The guitar riffing of album opener is a killer combination with the keyboards. Maybe it’s the track that sounds the most as a Prog Metal track with this combination plus vocals. Thanos are a band that really knows how to introduce the finesse ingredient to their music. And this finesse works really fine. Though “Mad King” is full of guitars its progression leads to a Prog Metal feeling, if my dear child of the night knows what I’m saying. Vocals are the ones that give the fan this feeling and intent. Following track “Asylum” – please, don’t confuse with the Kiss album – follows the same path but with stronger guitars. Again here the vocals give the Prog Metal touch even the strong guitars. From then on the album gets more and more Prog than Metal. For instance, “Dreamland” has an acoustic intro that addresses to Pink Floyd’s “Animals” era. Pay attention to the guitar solos and their overtones.

I have to say that “The Mad King” is a very well planned album. It seems that Thanos gave a lot of though to think it over carefully. Each track sounds to be exactly at the point the band desired and planned. Well, this seems to be a trait of Progressive bands of all kinds.

Thanos “The Mad King” will be released on November 04th.

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