Thrown To The Sun - Of Oceans And Raindrops

I'm not well versed on Turkish metal, but I had this Istanbul based Progressive Metal band suggested to me recently, and I'm really thankful for that because these guys are awesome. They go by Thrown To The Sun and their this is their debut album. It's titled Of Oceans And Raindrops, and this 51 minute beast was originally intended to be a short EP, before the writing process got a bit carried away. It was a very awesome change of plans if you ask me.

Upon listening I'm immediately reminded of Obscura. This album has a similar atmosphere to most of Obscura's albums. It's sort of hard to explain, it's sort of the way the guitar tones and bass tones work out against the semi dissonant sounding drums. It all works very well.. Anyhow, I hope this helps set up a general sound for you.

The album itself is great. It's fantastically well produced and is a great debut for these guys. The writing is superb. I was a little hesitant at first when I read they were planning an EP and it turned into an LP because it's not uncommon for younger progressive bands to just write rather long songs that would have worked far better as a shorter piece, sort of a trim the fat idea, but these guys have it down pat. Each song has good presence and it's own personality, while altogether working well as a whole. It's not a perfect album, but it's far better than my initial expectations and definitely on par with many progressive death bands today.

As I tend to do, I'll start with the guitars. While the solos are really good, and thankfully not few and far between, the riffing is what caught my attention. They aren't doing a million different riffs to show how complex and technically proficient they can be, rather they have a smaller bunch of smart riffs through each and every song, that blend together well. They also did a fantastic job with the bass guitar. It's audible throughout the entire album, and goes between competing with the lead guitar and supporting the riffs. It's one of the most interesting albums I've heard for the bass alone in a while.

The drumming is also great! Like I said, it has this somewhat dissonant tone to it, but it works really well and adds great atmosphere throughout the entire album. This guy also really knows how to throw some great fills in there. Top that off with some really interesting and often complex double bass rhythms and you've got a solid album overall. Some of the cymbals get drowned out at time and at other times they are rather loud, but it's not a large enough problem to make a fuss about.

The vocals are pretty solid too. They tend to stick to a mid to low range growl, and I almost hate to keep bringing up Obscura, but the mid's remind me of that a bit. (Maybe I've been listening to too much Obscura lately.) Either way I really like the vocals. The clean operatic vocals are an interesting touch, there aren't many of them, but they work well and remind me of the vocalist from Iced Earth.

Overall this is a really impressive first release. These guys definitely have a bright future ahead of them, I look forward to whatever they release next!