by Eduardo Rivadavia

Thunderstone's third album, Tools of Destruction, won't likely change anyone's perceptions of the group -- not their supporters, nor their detractors. Status quo defined, its ten, expertly but routinely crafted classic metal anthems entertain no discernible stylistic change, no daring new direction, not even anything one might remotely term as innovative, but rather slot mindlessly and timelessly into heavy metal's most traditional sonic aesthetic (post-1980) with barely a clue to help denote their actual chronology within that time span. In short: Thunderstone is exceedingly average! Hotshot guitarist Nino Laurenne peels off the occasional exciting solo amid the prevailing tedium, and his sporadic high-speed duels with keyboard player Kari Tornack (see "Without Wings," "The Last Song," "Weight of the World") easily comprise the album's absolute highlights, bar none. But their best efforts can only do so much to fire up their even more faceless cohorts, of which production-line singer Pasi Rantanen (his voice devoid of any unique personality beyond his myriad metal influences: Timo Kotipelto, Michael Kiske, Ralf Scheepers, you name it) must inevitably suffer the brunt of the criticism here. Still, one can't help but search in desperate futility for a positive spin, but when even the semi-progressive ambitions of final track "Land of Innocence" prove themselves virtually indistinguishable from literally hundreds of similarly competent but uninspired heavy metal bands out there, Thunderstone's metal-by-numbers exercise winds down rather devoid of any redeeming factors.