· THALAMUS - Beneath A Dying Sun (GYR047) ·
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::T R A C K S::
01. By The River
FORMAT: Audio CD / Digipack
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"Beneath A Dying Sun", the mega-awesome debut studio disc from Swedish heavy rock riffmachine THALAMUS, features 11 tracks (56 minutes) of intense, brain-damaging, bone-crushing, powerful pure rock fury. A classic, retro-70s blues-based orgasmic heavy rock riff fest.
Thalamus is the bastard child of Black Sabbath and Soundgarden. Modern day doom merchants with a fierce display of timeless, outstanding killer heavy guitar riffage. Taking their name from the part of your brain that registers pain, their killer heavy riffage will rip your brain out of your head and drop it on the floor like a quivering mass of jelly. Led by by an unstoppable force and brain-child known as Kjell Sjostrom on guitar & vocals, the man is a true riffmaster of classic heavy rock proportions. He delivers a brutal dose of relentless, monstrously heavy, outstanding noise pollution with a howling tornado of guitars and intense vocal wailings that pay tribute to the 70s heavy guitar gods with a musical message that comes crushing down like the sound of the apocalypse on your front door. The Thalamus band also features Jan Cederlund on second guitar and he is an integral part in their heavy rock mission. Both Sjostrom & Cederlund work well together as a solid rock machine and they know what time of day it is when it comes down to bad-ass, serious heavy guitar riffage. Rounding out Thalamus are Peter Johansson on Bass and Sebastian Olsson on drums. Both great, solid players who lock down a serious "groove machine" through-out the "Beneath a Dying Sun" disc to complete the awesome Thalamus rock thunder. "Beneath a Dying Sun" also features Klas Hagglund lending his atmospheric keyboard skills on two tracks and, as an added bonus, our good musical brother Janne 'Sacred Alien' Stark (Locomotive Breath, Overdrive, Mountain Of Power) lands on the Thalamus disc as a special guest on the awesome track "Maze of Revelations" complete with a killer lead guitar solo that will fry your brain. "Beneath A Dying Sun" is a big, mean and downright dangerous slab of snarling heavy rock mayhem, a tangled web of crushing guitar riffage and apocalyptic vocals. The riffage is pure, sludgy, crawling doom and the songwriting/playing takes the scorched-earth dynamics of the blues to their logical extreme. In short, this is an instant mind-blowing, cathartic heavy rock classic.
The THALAMUS: "Beneath A Dying Sun" disc is an amazing heavy rock riffmonster that is Highly recommended to fans of BLACK SABBATH, OZZY, SOUNDGARDEN, TROUBLE, CANDLEMASS, ALICE IN CHAINS, LED ZEPPELIN, DEEP PURPLE, CAPTAIN BEYOND, CLUTCH, MOJOBONE, MOUNTAIN OF POWER, etc. If you dig classic, serious heavy rock riffage your disc collection isn�t complete without the Thalamus: "Beneath A Dying Sun" disc. Tune in and be part of the Thalamus classic heavy rock riff madness.
Stay True...Rock Heavy.
MP3 Sample Clips 
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01. By The River |
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· beneath a dying sun ·
· reviews ·
'Beneath A Dying Sun' is the thunderous debut release from Sweden based rockers Thalamus. Kjell Bergendahl - Guitar, Vocals; Mats Gesar - Guitar; Peter Johansson - Bass; Magnus karlsson - Drums and Joakhim Åslund - Hammond organ and keys. The first thing that struck me right away about 'Beneath A Dying Sun' was the fantastic groove throughout that never at any point became tiresome. Too many times hard rock/stoner bands simply re-hash repetitive riffing, but on this release the riffage served up between Kjell Bergendahl and Mats Gesar is spot on. Sumptuous time changes and riff chopping/changing that simply floors you as a listener, making you guess the next direction they will take makes this a display of refined and ultimately skillful playing. There are plenty of straight up hard rock songs, such as the energetic "By The River", which acts as a perfect kick-start. The next two tracks, "Unravelled" and "Poor Man's Brain," are once again simplistic in approach but executed with such energy and power, the chorus to "Firefly" is extremely catchy, and the commanding vocal delivery from Kjell Bergendahl on "We're Gonna Die Someday" is sure to get your adrenaline going. Mention should also go to the fine closer "Falling" the darkest song on the album with a fine bleak quality that ends a superb album with a fine sophisticated bluesy edge. As old school heavy rock albums go, it really doesn't get much better than this. If you're a fan of bands like Firebird, Winery Dogs, Graveyard and Scorpion Child (not to mention Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep), you really need to check out Thalamus and 'Beneath A Dying Sun', is as good a place as any to start. A thunderous debut release that demands your attention. - Highly Recommended
Tony Sison - The Dedicated Rocker Society / All Access Magazine (June 2014)
-The legendary, nostalgic music of original Black Sabbath means so much to so many people who worship at the alter of true heavyrock music. Sabbath have inspired and influenced so many countless acts. Occasionally, once or twice a decade, a band pops out of nowhere and takes the original Sabbath musical concept and influxes their own creativity and innovation to deliver and raise the bar for the next generation of progress in heavyrock music design. THIS IS ONE SUCH BAND! From the opening track, the Thalamus disc comes at you like a freight train gone off the track, rummaging through, blowing up, and devastating everything in its path like an angry hurricane! The staple of the Thalamus sound is the monstrous, abominable guitar riffs that dominate and weld the music together in a catastrophic wall of sound that uses their soundwaves to obliterate all in sight like radiation from a nuclear bomb blast! -The opening track, BY THE RIVER, signifies this and uses a siren in the song as to almost forewarn you as to what you are about to experience and that you might likely not survive! Ironically, this is the tamest track on the disc! That's right.. it goes out of control!!
-UNRAVELLED comes second and here begins your volcanic juggernaut of molten riffs that spew from this cd like redhot lava.. devouring.. devastating.. destroying. Originally entitled DEATH Unravelled! -The huge third track, POOR MAN'S BRAIN, rewrites the book on ominous doom-laden power riffs and is this generation's answer, scope and magnitude to Iommi's 1970 superhero-gone-awry riff of Iron Man! If one riff anchored the power to bring on the end of the world.. this is it!!!
-Next, a certain highpoint on the disc due to its catchy, hook-laden riffing and memorable chorus grooves called CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOUR LOVE. Set at the perfect spot on the cd, it's like candy for your ears! It accomplishes refreshing, pleasurable, new details without changing the direction of the cd! Phenomenal!!!
-Track 5, RIDE, incorporates (and dare I do say it.. of course I do, this is Grooveyard Records label) the most bluesy riffnote that rocks hard and sets up the next several stunning cuts off the cd.. -NEXT TO ME comes next, complete with a real sense of 70s hard rock flare set to the power and production of today's modern heavyrock music..
-Just in time to revive the pace again with the dynamic FIRELY! This song hammers on a mesmerizing riff to bring you into almost a psychotic state of psychodelic heaviness! Another dynomite hook-catchy chorus to stick to your brain!
-MAZE OF REVELATIONS, nothing but pure guitar-power! Drawn up just the way we like it.. and the way heavy-guitar rock should always be measured up to. Stellar combination of tasty soloing endures in this song.. with a surprize or two inside including a dazzling cow bell stand out!
-WERE GONNA DIE SOMEDAY is straight up hit you between the eyes Thalamus rock and roll. The magnificent riffs continue to roll and give way to the anthem on the cd entitled.. -TOO STONED, with its chugging rhythym and soaring vocals, releases the pleasure-endorphines inside of you to give you the ultimate heavyrock, feelgood, contact high! Get rock-guitar wasted courtesy of Thalamus just by blasting this one on 10!!
-And finally, the cd winds down with the perfect-ending song, FALLING. With its Planet Caravan hypnotizing vibe, it brings the pace down and allows the listener to get both feet back firmly on the ground again! Its a great change of direction and a sound I'd like to hear more of on future Thalamus releases! -This band brings unlimited potential to the ranks of true, heavy-guitar rock music. As they further develop their style and delivery, I can't hardly wait to see where they take it from here. This debut is masterful power in all its glory! Congratulations to Thalamus, (the part of the brain that feels good pain), and to Grooveyard Records for branching out and into this metalized form of true, heavyrock music! May there be more..
Geno Desi - Generations Underground (1.08) AXECALIBER "Lead-Guitar Dominated Heavyrock" Radio Show
The thalamus is defined as "the brain region that serves as a switching station for sensory signals channeling from the brain stem to other brain regions, and is closely related to the function of consciousness." The reason I preface this review with this technical definition is that the band THALAMUS is truly "the musical switching station for channeling old-school heaviness to your ears, and is closely related to the function of your mind being blown."
Just as the biological function is well-defined, so is the musical function of this band. These guys are of one mind...and it shows on every single track. This riffmachine rolls in bone-crushing overdrive from the first note...the only release from the pummeling assault only happens between songs. The THALAMUS vibe casts dark influential shadows reminiscent of Black Sabbath, Budgie, Camel and early Soundgarden, but the granite-hard amalgam that casts the shadow they've created projects their own unique shape...again, well-defined - in the extreme.
One very cool and uncommon aspect of these arrangements is that the bass guitar and drums move from the position of foundation to superstructure - the lowdown, riff-heavy, split-channel groovaciousness of guitarists Kjell Sjostrom and Jan Cedarlund is super-glued to bassist Peter Johasson's figures and Sebastian Olsson's syncopated mind-meld drumming...they think and act as one...capturing that true retro-70s vibe of "all for one, one for all".
Kjell's vocals are of particular note...live and strong, passionate and bluesy...totally resonant with the bone-crushing grooves. His delivery is lyrical, emotionally heartfelt and delivered from WITHIN the songs...not afflicted by "skating" on top of them (as so many of their so-called contemporaries consistently suffer from).
The last two tracks - "Too Stoned" and "Falling" - artistically cap this outing with a fabulous "tune-tie" that starts heavy and immediate and ends airy and reflective. These two tracks should be the "know your dose" mantra - beautiful...and terrifying..truth.
No studio trickery is present in this mix - it's totally in your face, very loud and very clear. It may sound like a paradox, but this clarity is REFRESHING...no chorus, delay, flange, boosters or ProTools trickery...a pure and unaffected sonic assault, save for the careful micro-fine-tuning of EQ to drill the grooves down to bedrock - hard and tight. Just listen. You'll know what I mean. Let THALAMUS tap into your musical consciousness. Heavy never felt so good for so long.
Jimmy Ryan (Truth Squad) (1.08)
No doubt about it, Thalamus pack a mighty big wallop. Claiming to be the bastard child of Black Sabbath and Soundgarden the Swedish four piece have brandished eleven original compositions that harold them as the modern merchants of doom. Brain-damaging blues kicks into high gear with "By The River", a bludgeoning effort that mid-way through hosts the sound clip "My advise to you, start drinking heavily." The thunderous applause is heard in the riff of "Unravelled" a dense power vehicle that gains momentum in the shadow of vintage '90s-era Neanderthal rock. Here is where we first hear the Soundgarden comparison that drifts in and out like a ring of gonga smoke and haunts the dirge of "Poor Man's Brain" "Next To Me" and "Too Stoned". The guitar takes over as the main component with Kjell Sjostrom's voice giving added dimension to a punishing rhythm section.
Said voice takes songs like "Maze of Revelations" and the slower "Falling" to a serial level of intoxication embracing the meaning of the lyric and giving a soulful polish to the music. Yet, Beneath A Dying Sun is undoubtedly and unashamedly rooted in the almighty riff. Nowhere is that more evident than in "Ride" where the song plays host to such a meaty drive that you'd swear is was unearthed Sabbath complete with a wah-wah infused solo. Other tracks play just as much havoc on the eardrum including "Can't Live Without Your Love", "Firefly" and "We're Gonna Die Someday" with its unforgettable line "Someday we're gonna die and wolves will feast upon your carcass." Dude - now that's hardcore! Granted no one is inventing the wheel here - its just how it's executed. No imposters they-re just living their slogan: Stay true - rock heavy.
Todd K. Smith (The Cutting Edge) (2.08)
THALAMUS - "Beneath A Dying Sun" CD '08 (Grooveyard, Swe) - First off, I know someone is going to tell me that this disc says "2007" on the imprint. Yes, I know and the reason I've got it listed as 2008 here is that both the band and the label owner have told me that it actually became available at the very dawn of '08, so there you are. I'll also tell you that the very dawn of this record, the track "By The River" is a master-blaster of cacophonous proportions, calling to mind Dio-era Sabbath/Spiritual Beggars crush, coupled with a mammoth dose of organic groove that has the great works of the '70s written all over it. It surely doesn't end there, either, my friends. Check out cuts like "Can't Live Without Your Love" & "Ride". Guitarist/vocalist Kjell Sjostrom leads the way in laying down the business on these, both with his powerful & vibrant voice, sometimes reminiscent of Spice, and his thundering axe technique. He's joined in the latter 6-string strangling by Jan Sederlund and together the 2 deliver all meat & no filler to the listener all the way through the final especially somber number, "Falling". I really like, in particular, the way these 2 guys play together. One minute, they can lock together in a massive groove that reminds me, somehow all at once, of Tony Iommi and Jerry Cantrell. Then, they'll hover together, suspended by a melodic harmony that harkens to both the works of Thin Lizzy and Trouble. THALAMUS is not trying to re-invent the wheel here, and that is so much to their credit. Too often in the world of heavy rock, bands lose focus and direction when they get all artsy & cutesy and the results lack conviction, power and balls. There is no such lack on "Beneath A Dying Sun". THALAMUS has balls of iron and they are landing on your head with this stellar release. Buy! 9.0
Ray Dorsey (Ray's Realm) (September 2008)
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