adg211288 Time’s Arrow is the third full-length album by US heavy metal act A Sound of Thunder. Released in 2013, it follows hot on the heels of prior EP Queen of Hell (2012), the title track from which is re-presented here. A Sound of Thunder first came to my attention with their prior full-length Out of the Darkness (2012), a release that instantly made a positive impression on me. It had its faults to be fair, but there was so much more greatness to be had out of it. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this follow-up ever since it was first announced.

I think we can cut the suspense and just confirm that the band has delivered in just about every area I could have wanted following the last album. The female fronted act has quite the varied sound built on a backbone of old school sounding traditional heavy metal, and the sound heard on Time’s Arrow is a logical progression from that of Out of the Darkness. While the basic ingredients they’re adding to the traditional metal sound remain much the same, the measures are quite different which results in Time’s Arrow’s sound having its own identity. The only thing of note that is absent this time around is the doom metal influences that mostly appeared on Out of the Darkness’s opener The Day I Die. Instead there are some aspects of classic hard rock creeping in, along with the few power metal elements, that also appeared on the prior release, mostly heard during the song Queen of Hell, which is pretty much a full on power metal track, but also in a couple of other places.

The biggest change is how many progressive elements there are present on Time’s Arrow. I’m of the opinion that Out of the Darkness also had some progressive touches, but while there they were quite subtle, on Time’s Arrow they’re much more obvious to hear, although they never overpower the main intent of the release, which is quite clearly, once again, to be a classic heavy metal band, and A Sound of Thunder have succeeded in that on Time’s Arrow, just as they did on Out of the Darkness. The way they got there may have been a bit different this time, but the result is still that passionate, energetic act that won me over last year.

Out of the Darkness had one issue for me, one which ultimately kept it off my higher two rating tiers when I reviewed it. One song, called Kill That Bitch, although quite good in its own right, always came across as being lyrically out of place on the album, to the point that it actually disrupted the flow of my listens every time it started up. The rest of the album ranged from exceptional to masterful, but that hiccup kept in the four stars sort of rating range. There is no such hiccup present on Time’s Arrow. This naturally means the album flows much more smoothly from start to finish, and since the band clearly hasn’t run out of steam despite dropping a new full-length every year since their debut Metal Renaissance (2011), and instantly makes the album stand out as the work of a band moving up in the world. Singer Nina Osegueda sounds better than ever and once again they deliver consistent high quality work including anthems like the aforementioned Queen of Hell, as well as I Will Not Break and My Disease, the latter of which is a duet between Nina and former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley. Another highlight is the lengthy title track, in which not a second is wasted.

When Out of the Darkness was released in 2012 it was during a time when a lot of female fronted heavy and power metal acts were making names for themselves and delivering high quality work. Out of all those I personally reviewed, in a move that in hindsight I think may have been harsh, Out of the Darkness ended up one of the lower ranked releases. With Time’s Arrow however I can’t see much danger of that happening again. It is, in fact, the strongest traditional metal (well mostly traditional metal anyway) release I’ve heard so far for 2013. An exceptional grade rating is deserved.

92/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/a-sound-of-thunder-time-s-arrow-t3008.html)