Thunder Seven Triumph Artist

{|Triumph|}'s once unstoppable rock & roll machine was seriously running out of gas by the release of 1984's {|Thunder Seven|}, which was named thus because it was, in fact, their seventh studio album in Canada (sixth worldwide). Where the previous y... Read more

{|Triumph|}'s once unstoppable rock & roll machine was seriously running out of gas by the release of 1984's {|Thunder Seven|}, which was named thus because it was, in fact, their seventh studio album in Canada (sixth worldwide). Where the previous year's {|Never Surrender|} had managed to disguise the band's dwindling stores of inspiration and desire beneath a semi-convincing imitation of glories past, {|Thunder Seven|} revealed a group that was largely going through the motions. Familiar-sounding fare like {|Times Go By|} and {|Stranger in a Strange Land|} merely recycled old templates whose potential for original ideas had already been stripped bare, while disposable heavy rock anthems such as {|Spellbound|} and {|Rock Out, Roll On|} suffered from lukewarm execution, had very little of substance to say (no huge surprise there; {|Triumph|} were never the most eloquent of lyric writers), and found the band succumbing to the ultimate mainstream temptation of incorporating '80s-style synthesizers to boot. Ultimately, {|Thunder Seven|}'s rare pleasant surprises were confined to competent radio single {|Follow Your Heart|} and the mildly enthusiastic {|Killing Time,|} which saw guitarist {|Rik Emmett|} and drummer {|Gil Moore|} trading lead vocal lines for maybe the first time ever on record. Too bad this show of unity had to come on one of {|Triumph|}'s most forgettable albums. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia Less