{"id":48563,"date":"2015-03-04T20:52:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T01:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=48563"},"modified":"2015-03-08T08:39:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T13:39:15","slug":"thomsen-unbroken-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/thomsen-unbroken-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomsen | Unbroken<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Thomsen\"It’s been five years since the release of Thomsen’s debut album Let’s Get Ruthless<\/em>, but guitarist\/band leader Rene Thomsen finally returned late last year with a follow-up album, titled Unbroken. It’s an album \u2013 and a band \u2013 that slipped under the radar, but also one that is going to satisfy fans of powerful, old school heavy metal.<\/p>\n

If you’re unfamiliar with Thomsen’s previous work, the band’s sound draws heavily from classic heavy metal bands, particularly Accept, Saxon and Dio. Blazing lead guitars, wicked solos and thundering rhythms dominate, but are balanced by fantastic melodies like you’d expect from a power metal album. Thomsen put together some very strong songs for Unbroken that capture the classic metal era without sounding like cheap imitation. <\/p>\n

Thomsen and his band (which now features Iron Fate vocalist Denis Brosowski) are joined this time around by a host of guest musicians, including Fair Warning guitarist Helge Engelke, who produced the album. Other guests include drummers Vinny Appice (Black Sabbath, Dio), Bobby Jarzombek (Halford, Fates Warning) and Andre Hilgers (Rage), U.D.O. guitarist Mathias Dieth, Morbid Angel bassist David Vincent and none other than U.D.O.\/ex-Accept frontman Udo Dirkschneider, who lends his instantly recognizable voice to the song \u201cWe Made It.\u201d<\/p>\n

Normally a list of guest stars like that could make an album, but it’s a tribute to just how well written and executed these songs are that Unbroken is so strong even without them. Songs like \u201cNew Horizon,\u201d \u201cFools of Fortune\u201d and especially the monster title track are everything classic heavy metal should sound like.<\/p>\n

Hopefully it won’t take another five years for a follow-up album, because Thomsen is really on to something here. Unbroken is one of the strongest traditional heavy metal albums 2014 had to offer, and is a must-have for fans of Accept, U.D.O., Saxon, Dio and the like. Get your hands on this one, turn it up and bang your head!<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nRene Thomsen (g)
\nDenis Brosowski (v)
\nRobert Soeterboek (v)
\nIngo Luhring (b)
\nMichael Pesin (g)
\nMax Dietzmann (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tDraw the Curtains
\n2.\tIn Steel We Trust
\n3.\tNew Horizon
\n4.\tBreak the Spell
\n5.\tDream
\n6.\tFools of Fortune
\n7.\tInto the Unknown
\n8.\tUnbroken
\n9.\tSix Thirteen 64
\n10.\tWe Made It
\n11.\tOne
\n12.\tTears of the Sun (live)<\/p>\n

Label: Artist Station<\/p>\n

Website: www.thomsen-unbroken.de<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — It’s been five years since the release of Thomsen’s debut album Let’s Get Ruthless, but guitarist\/band leader Rene Thomsen finally returned late last year with a follow-up album, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[10896,2317,2491,10899,10164],"class_list":{"0":"post-48563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-artist-station","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-thomsen","12":"tag-unbroken"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}