ALBUM REVIEW: Daydream Illusion – Thornbridge

There’s something symbiotic about Germany and power metal. Throw a dart at any calendar made there in the last 40 years and you’ll hit a key date for the genre, such is the influence of the pairing. While the tactic of “just be HELLOWEEN, hold the mustard and extra cheese” tends to get the job done, it’s interesting to see what new flavours newcomers bring to the table to shake things up. THORNBRIDGE took up the challenge with their rough and ready debut What Will Prevail in 2016, followed up by a real beast of an album in Theatrical Masterpiece three years later that left a lot of dairy loving fans waiting with bated breath for what came next.

In Daydream Illusion, that wait is over. While Theatrical Masterpiece married heavy and harmony (even under assault by accordion), this is a carousel horse of a different colour. Gone are most of the grimier elements, replaced by a carnival theming that is lighter to the point of sparkling. Gone are frontman Jörg “Mo” Naneder’s rough vocals, now squeaky clean throughout. The premise is still classic, bonkers THORNBRIDGE theatre, however – if there’s another album from the POV of a Victorian child’s mental asylum trauma coping this year, someone has been crimping their notes.

Despite the stripping down of the darker bits of the set dressing, there’s still plenty of scenery left to chew on. The ORDEN OGAN-eqsue layered choruses pack their familiar all chant, no scant power punches that are forever an absolute blast. The band’s pacing is a joy, too; once they get up to speed, THORNBRIDGE embrace the gallop. The utterly infectious My Last Desire holds your eardrums at gunpoint until you’re howling along to it, while riotous fromage-fest Final War thunders along and double kicks its way into your heart. The theming allows for the Court of Power Metal mandated ballad to rear its head in a first for the band, too; Send Me A Light does a fine job of providing some soft variety before swinging into some chunky, AOR-adjacent riffage. In decent stretches, the second half of the album showcases what made their first two albums great – it gets sharp, finely polished claws right into you.

That last section sees a heavily telegraphed “but” hove into view; at times, proceedings are far flatter than the flamboyant exterior suggests. What came before felt aggressive and active but when it’s not smashing along at the speed of fun, Daydream Illusion ambles under the illuminations with no sense of urgency. Kingdom Of Starlight is the worst offender, an anaemic blend of the basics that can’t be rescued by a weak chorus. The lightened tone has done too good a job of sanding off all the edges from the word go; hell, even the lead single I Am The Storm treads dangerously close to a power metal paint-by-numbers exercise, before it thankfully starts channelling ABBA three and a half minutes in. That’s bad news for any album, but for one that directly follows an album full of hard and heavy good stuff it’s closer to damning than most will be able to ignore.

For those who have been eagerly awaiting Daydream Illusion, the fairground will no doubt delight. But the areas where the shadows have been banished by the dancing lights highlight a lack of character. Following Theatrical Masterpiece was always a tall order and, while this is hardly an unforgiveable regression in the name of commitment to the theme, it’s noticeably a south-easterly step instead of a forward one. Not a full whiff at the coconut shy, but definitely a missed trick.

Rating: 6/10

Daydream Illusion is set for release on March 22nd via Massacre Records.

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