Band:	Thaurorod
Album:	Morning Lake
Style:	Power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	March 27, 2007
A review by:	wrathchild

01. Into The Realms Of Hidden Me
02. Cursed In The Past
03. Morning Lake

I was extremely pleased with the second demo of Thaurorod, Tales Of The End, for it contained 3 songs of quality power metal with character. And they did it again with Morning Lake, a new 3-song demo.

Once again, the band cared about the whole presentation of their product. There's nothing really special in the package I received, just a CD in a thin case with a one page booklet, but the artwork is great, classy; a very professional object.

As for the music, we're still facing a top quality power metal band. Not too technical, not too linear, not too "flowered," that should also appeal to many non-power metallers. The production of Morning Lake seems similar to that of Tales Of The End, though a bit less screamy. The quality may be better but the overall impression is that the sound is less aggressive and expressive. It wouldn't matter that much if the compositions weren't less "aggressive" as well.
In fact, the right word would be "monotonous", especially when listening to all the songs at once. You don't actually realize you've changed songs, see what I mean. I already had this feeling with the previous demo, though it was clearly gone at the second spin but this time, it's still more or less present after listening to Morning Lake many more times.
Yet, Thaurorod's music is still great, powered by talented musicians who did include a few special things to their new CD, most notably female backing vocals (on Into The Realms Of Hidden Me and Morning Lake) and male growls (Cursed In The Past) for example. Though it's not enough to prevent us from being mesmerized by Vladimir Lumi's mighty and majestic voice, which is great but is also the main reason for the feeling of monotony I told you about earlier. The word (sometimes syllable) flow is too repetitive but since it's also part of the identity of the band, I can't really blame them for that.

Even if I prefer Tales Of The End, Morning Lake still is another proof of the band's quality. If they could add some either slower or faster songs, they would probably have the required material to release an awesome album. For now, I'm satisfying my ears by playing a few of their songs from time to time, not in a row so I can enjoy each single song to the fullest.