Spectacular melodic metal debut albums are hard to come by these days, but with ‘Converging Parallel Worlds‘, Belgian newcomer Throne of Thorns has delivered just that. While it might help that Throne of Thorns consists of experienced musicians, the band is not a supergroup in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, ‘Converging Parallel Worlds’ is the brainchild of guitarist Thomas Jethro Verleye, who then looked for the right people to record his music with him. The result is a bombastic album that despite its epic nature never loses track of memorable songwriting. If you like melodic metal of any kind, you owe it to yourself to hear this.

Throne of Thorns’ primary inspirations appear to be the adventurous songwriting of mid-eighties progressive metal and the huge melodic hooks of contemporary power metal. But the band is not a perfect fit for either of those descriptions. Musically, ‘Converging Parallel Worlds’ feels like a less flamboyant Crimson Glory mixed with the songwriting philosophy of mid-period Blind Guardian, though Verleye allows his musical ideas more time to unfold than either of those bands. Josey Hindrix’ vocals occasionally remind me of Mekong Delta’s Doug Lee, but with a stronger melodic focus. Combine that with Verleye’s expertise at creating wonderful guitar orchestrations and you have got a winner of an album.

First things first: I feel the two singles kind of misrepresent the album. They are understandable choices, as they are the most compact songs by a considerable margin – the others all exceed the eight-minute mark – and ‘Underworld’ is actually a gorgeous melodic metal song, but they don’t quite emphasize just how riff-driven ‘Converging Parallel Worlds’ is. Sure, every song has a chorus that opens up the song and leaves plenty of space for Hindrix’ vocals and layers upon layers of guitar harmonies. But there are also plenty of riffs which, helped by the powerful backbone of drummer Baruch van Bellegem, invite the listener to headbang along.

In fact, the first proper song ‘Storm Maker’ starts with a couple. One of them is actually quite thrashy, but the track quickly evolves into a dynamic track with many contrasting sections that go together surprisingly well. Ultimately, that is Throne of Thorns’ biggest strength. Verleye throws a lot of ideas into his songs, but as a listener, you never lose track of what’s going on. No track is more representative of this than closing track ‘Fire and Ice’, which I didn’t realize was over eleven minutes long until I checked. Other highlights include the title track, which really turns the intensity dial up with some awesome riffs, and the melodic majesty of ‘Black Diamond’.

As a jaded music journalist, it’s easy to put on my analytic glasses and judge an album merely on aspects that can somewhat objectively be described as good. Very few albums that I get to hear through my work for the music magazines resonate with me so viscerally as ‘Converging Parallel Worlds’ did. Some songs almost feel like they have been written specifically for me, but the truth is probably that Verleye’s musical preferences are fairly close to mine. The album really feels like someone’s been given the space to shape his musical vision and the results are nothing short of incredible.

Recommended tracks: ‘Converging Parallel Worlds’, ‘Black Diamond’, ‘Fire and Ice’, ‘Storm Maker’