Review of Throne of Chaos - Loss Angeles

Wow. Where to begin? It’s always been a pleasure listening to Throne of Chaos, but I’ve never taken them as anything more than they always appeared to be, a bunch of guys playing fun metal with progressive leanings and inane lyrics. I have a strong feeling that Loss Angeles will be the album that breaks them free of that pigeonhole. While Pervertigo was a nice step in the right direction from their debut, Menace and Prayer, Loss Angeles ups the ante tremendously. In only the span of just a year, they’ve managed to mature to a level many bands fail to ever reach. Bar one reversion to their earlier inanity later in the album (Break-A-Neck) and a forgettable but fun cover of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water, this record is filled with gems. Thus far, it’s been impossible to pinpoint any improvement that stands out most. Everything is good. The departments that were previously somewhat lacking (songwriting, lyrics, and singing to some extent) have all been brought up to speed and then some alongside the already quite sufficient musicianship. Previously the vocals were mostly clean, but hardly emotive. It was clear that the subject matter was for fun and not something to be taken all too seriously. Not only has the style of singing been fine tuned very well, there’s far more enthusiasm for this concept album. From Pervertigo to Loss Angeles, the songwriting has changed drastically from music that sounded like a more progressive version of Children of Bodom to an amalgam of styles ranging from psychedelic, atmospheric rock, metal, progressive, and even some jazzy things thrown in here and there. Often when bands increase the lengths of their songs, as Throne of Chaos has done, it’s for reasons other than having an abundance of ideas. Most often, it seems to be exactly the opposite; that they’ve run out of ideas and are unable to fill an album in any way other than to drag things on for longer than they should go. Here the increased song length seems very natural. They’ve obviously put a far greater amount of effort into creating songs with much more substance and it’s paid off. By far the most unexpected thought I’ve had about this album is that it is, in many ways, the album that Wolverine should have released instead of the highly disappointing Cold Light of Monday. Songs like Gothamburg and Bite the Bullet are full on emotional prog rock, not necessarily so similar to Wolverine, but enough so that I feel like Wolverine would have released music like this on their recent effort had they been more inspired. Another huge shock is that the fifth track, Blue Lady, and its reprise later on are quite comparable to Devin Townsend. The atmosphere is gorgeous and while the music is obviously reminiscent of Townsend it still has a distinctly Throne of Chaos flavor. Though I had high expectations for this album, they were expectations for a very well done but ultimately goofy album. I love it when I’m wrong about things like that. Loss Angeles is not at all what I was expecting from these guys. It’s much better.

Release Details

Throne of Chaos

Loss Angeles

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