THABU — Reborn (review)

THABU — Reborn album cover Album · 2012 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Crushing and catchy...

Genre: progressive metal

Hailed as one of very few progressive bands on the otherwise quite extensive Argentinian metal scene, Thabu represents the heavier end of the progressive metal without going into extreme metal territory.

More in the vein of recent Symphony X than, say, your Dream Theater- or Fates Warning-clones, Thabu do inject elements from US power metal into their brand of progressive metal. Thus, the songs build on considerably heavy guitar figures - at times crushingly heavy - with slight hints of groove every now and then, accompanied by dynamic bass patterns that sound like they are played on a fretless bass. James Robledo's vocals have a raw edge to them, and sound inspired by Ronnie James Dio - thus he is contributes both a raw edge and an extra layer of melody. As is pretty much traditional in progressive metal, Thabu feature keyboards on this release, but they normally stay in the background, providing some atmosphere, and are only rarely allowed to step up to the forefront.

While not really self-indulgent, we are dealing with music performed by very able musicians. There definitely are elements of virtuosity - in particular in the extremely impressive guitar solos. The drums are rock solid and seem to actually make the odd time signatures that pop up every now and then seem less inaccessible than they already are. Needless to say, we are also dealing with skilled songwriters who understand how to make challenging compositions which are still quite accessible and memorable. 'Theatre of Faith' is a good example of this, while the instrumental 'Remains of Reality' represents Thabu at their from less accessible (and, of course, this is a brilliant instrumental!).

For my money, Thabu's "Reborn" is a brilliant progressive metal release, which takes cues from the giants in the genre, but which is still very much an entity in its own right. Fans of Symphony X and Anubis Gate might also like this one.
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