Four girls and hard rock? Thundermother is definitely a cool bunch of ladies. On 31st July 2020, they released the album Heat Wave – already the fourth one in the band history. After the ladies had some success already, I was curious about the record.
Thundermother – About The Artists
Thundermother are a Swedish Hard Rock band from Växjo. They have been found in 2009. The founder, Filippa Nässli, who is playing the guitar, is the only band member left from the band. All other members left together in 2017, Nässli re-founded the band thereafter and played the first band’s gigs after the split just a few months thereafter. The current line-up is a band of four, Nässli, Guernica Mancini (vocals), Majsam Lindberg (bass) and Emlee Johansson on the drums.
Their debut LP, Rock ‘N’ Roll Disaster, was the band’s biggest success so far. The album placed #36 in their home country. Their last album, the 2018 Thundermother barely made it into the German Top-100.
Thundermother – Heat Wave – Track by Track
Heat Wave contains 13 tracks. It lasts 49 minutes.
1. Loud And Alive
No doubt about this one is going to rock! More or less, from the very first second, the guitar strings are doing the hard sound and Johansson is putting pressure on the drums – Loud And Alive feels like a perfect starter, which also defines the style of the album: hard rock, which feels a bit like AC/DC, but is more modern on the other hand. Cool!
2. Dog From Hell
Love is a Dog // A Dog From Hell – this track, which reminds me of some Warlock songs, is a perfect sing-a-long for every festival. Bang your heads for the mothers!
3. Back in ‘76
Back in ’76 is having a very similar structure than the track before: the chorus is very melodic and catchy, a good sing and party at every concert. Mancini is the dominating part in this track – I wonder how long her voice had to recover after they completed the recording of that time travel track.
4. Into The Mud
Tough times for the drums: Into The Mud is not at all sticky and slow, but a pure uptempo hellfire.The girls have a lot of power. Again, the song reminds me of the Warlock party anthems. Great one!
5. Heat Wave
Heat Wave is definitely slowed than Into the Mud. Great chorus, which is dominating the song. Hard not to repeat yourself – but I guess Heat Wave is another song which is just great as a live-on-stage performance.
6. Sleep
The next two songs have been released as single already. The first one is Sleep, which feels so uncharacteristic to this album so far, as it is the first hard rock ballad on the Heat Wave album. Rockers are just great if they express their feelings – no matter if they are male or female. Love it!
7. Driving In Style
Driving In Style is more like the single which tells you the truth about these four women. They want to rock – and they want it hard! I love that sound, Hard to stop moving to the rhythm while typing this review.
8. Free Ourselves
The guitars strum at the beginning a bit like on legendary AC/DC tracks. Again, Nässli and her band just produce feel-good hard rock. Cool sound. Sweden rocks!
9. Mexico
Mexico is a bit softer than the tracks before – and maybe even a bit more melodic as well. A great sound track for a road trip – even though driving to Mexico might not be possible for most of us currently.
10. Purple Sky
The less you are into metal / hard rock, the more albums of that genre may tend to become boring and monotonous after a while. Purple Sky is a great track on Heat Wave to prevent that feeling. The soul-alike rock sound is a very new and characteristic flavor on that album so far. Nice variety!
11. Ghosts
Ghosts is rather a track for the string lovers. Nice riffs, a cool guitar solo, just good ingredients for a good rock song. The lyrics are rather thin… But hey – it is more a party rock track than a deep and thoughtful one.
12. Somebody Love Me
After the album so far, it is hard to imagine that the girls have problems to find someone to love – even though Somebody Love Me is rather on the hard and fast side. The track feels a bit weaker than other songs on the album, though.
13. Bad Habits
The album finishes in style: power, rock, rhythmic songs. The girls are doing fun – however, I felt they did even better towards the beginning of the album.
Thundermother – Heat Wave – Spotify
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Thundermother – Heat Wave – My View
Heat Wave is a lot of fun. I am sure that the quartet is even better when being on stage, but already listening to this Växjo rock gang is a lot of fun. Very rhythmic, cool sound, but also surprising elements are in the album. Unfortunately, the last songs feel a bit weaker. The album was en route for the Top Pick! rankings – but finally barely missed it.
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