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POUNDER
Thunderforged

Shadow Kingdom (2024)
Rating: 5.5/10

Back in 2021 I reviewed the sophomore album from Los Angeles, California-based trio Pounder, Breaking The World, and wasn’t exactly excited or convinced by guitarist Matt Harvey’s (Gruesome, Exhumed, Dekapitator etc.) vocal performance. As albums go there were plenty of weighty moments, but its generic nature meant that no feathers were rustled during several plays.

So, here we are again, with Pounder’s third full-length with Harvey once more joined by lead guitarist Tom Draper (Hands Of Goro, ex-Savage Messiah, ex-Primitai) and bassist Alejandro Corredor (Nausea).

Obviously one cannot ignore the cool album art as opener ‘Sound And Fury’ beats its chest and methodically worms its way through trad metal chords before the fiery charge. Harvey sounds more authentic and organic in his vocal style now and rooted in the mid-80s US metal scene. It’s certainly a strong start as the trio trade instrumental blows through a curtain of playful flames. However, as the album unravels one feels short changed as I’m bemused by the tepid production.

This is the sort of album that should kick you in the balls after setting fire to your house, but no, the guitar seems to be lost in the background and everything comes coated in a layer of cheese in its desperate attempt to sound nostalgic, and a majority of the lyrics are responsible for that.

Very quickly Harvey’s vocals become stretched, especially on the bloody awful ballad ‘Deeper Than Blood’ where again the sound suffers. Surely the band isn’t doing this weak production thing to sound old? If so, it hasn’t worked as another cheese ball in the form of ‘Metal Eternal’ wafts like a bad smell on the eggy breeze of more bad lyrics.

Okay, so some of the riffs are decent – not that the production aids them in their quest – especially on the charge of the title track, and the band aren’t strangers to an infectious chorus either. There are even some fine leads littered throughout such as on ‘Wet And Wreckless’, but it all just bleeds into one bog standard, although sometimes anthemic, composition.

‘Get Pounded’ gallops with some intent and ‘Line Of Fire’ is just as boisterous. In fact, the whole album sizzles with metallic fury, but rarely am I convinced by such promises as I relegate Pounder’s latest offering to the pile of material I probably won’t revisit for some time, if at all.

Neil Arnold

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