Track listing:
01. Burn Their Books of Rules
02. Acts of Sheer Will
03. Parched Earth Lament
04. What Future?
05. Revile
Throne of Stone, a band located in the Wigan, UK area, started out as a two-person project, which evolved into a three-person hard to classify Metal act. Their influences range widely, from Death Metal bands such as Morbid Angel and Nile to blackened bands such as Behemoth and Darkthrone, even stretching to an Asian, Electronic and Ambient sound. This unique blend of influences leads to music that is difficult to categorize. Their debut demo could be characterized as a Melodic Death/Trash with experimental elements both inside and outside the boundaries of contemporary extreme music.
The guitar riffs go from simple, chunky riffs to more complex, progressive styles. They are exceptional, with unique phrasing and melody, and fit to the songs in a slightly discontiguous yet powerful way. The tendency to use advancing cyclic structures of verse elements allows melodic continuity through reference and implication, providing a clear navigation through the songs. The inclusion of keyboards is a huge plus and they perfectly add on to the atmosphere set by Throne of Stone. They save the tracks from monotony and do not seem exaggerated at all. The throat of Paolo Donagre provides us with well-suited intensive low, Doom/Death growls. The drums are heavy, though giving a bit of a dry and muffled sound. My main problem with the drums is the lack of variation in beats throughout a few tracks such as the opening one, Burn Their Books of Rules.
You immediately get thrown into the devastating rhythmic and melodic assault of the demo with Burn Their Books of Rules. It gives you the feeling of starting out at the middle of a song. Therefore, the order is rather atypical, finishing with a dark atmospheric instrumental track, Revile, which could have perfectly suited as intro. My personal highlight is the energetic and raw Parched Earth Lament, leaning towards Nile’s early Egyptian onslaught and serving a nice transition onto the following track, What Future?.
The main down point to this demo is the production quality. It is obscure and distorted with poor mixing, though excellent on the keyboards representation. I would be excited to see what Throne of Stone would be able to do with a proper recording studio.
Musicality does not ascend to great levels of innovation. There is nothing new to the music, but it escapes predictability. The band shows some musicianship, but most of the time their music could be improved if they demonstrated more of their talent through their instruments, rather than just song writing. Throne of Stone provides a refreshing and expressive form of Metal music. Overall, their debut demo sounds promising and will appeal to a broad audience of Metal heads.
6/10 Points – reviewed by Lyra
official Website: http://www.myspace.com/ThroneofStone