This melodic death acts' debut here features a lot of innovation and creativity in songwriting. Their lineup on the release feature Hiram Lohr on guitars/vocals, Kellen Sharp on guitars/bass/vocals, and Fredrik Widigs on drums. An unknown band right now that needs to be well known especially within their genre. All of the songs are good and the whole CD clocks in about 40 minutes in length featuring 10 awesome songs. Amazing band and I'll tell you why. But first of all, I was stupefied by this brilliant debut. They caught me off guard into how wonderfully creative this album is.

From a musical standpoint, this album sounds a lot like Hypocrisy's latest release, but maybe even better. The songs entail unimaginable melodies that shine in triumph. A lot of palm muted riffs with gallops galore and high quality tremolo picking by Hiram and Kellen. The solos could use some brushing up, but the rhythms were unimaginably impeccable. Every song deserves praise. The vocals vary between heavy throat outputs that make it sound more like a death metal release, but also feature screams as well. Both fit the music intelligently and augment the guitar riffs in unison.

I liked all of the songs on here because of their impeccable design and music that's played out with vigor galore. No letting up here. They really nailed it even on this debut. It seems like this band was around for a while, but their origin was dating back to 2008. The guitars to me are what stand out the most. Not the leads, but the melodies. The leads were poorly performed unfortunately and I would've given the band an even higher rating if they stuck with only the rhythms.

The production/mixing was brilliant. Everything was well heard on here. The vocals both screaming/hoarse fit in well, the guitar was highly audible, and the drums well meshed in together also. They really did a high quality job on here with the music. Nothing is left out or needs to be fixed. I figure that this band as described has enormous potential and it shines through this album. Really mature musicians even though they're quite new to the melodic death metal genre. Definitely worth checking out for sure.

In summation, I conclude that Thousand Year War has like I said before has enormous potential and it is shown here on this release. I'm hoping that the band would continue to dish out quality music and needs to come out from the underground and be better recognized. If you heard this album and scored it below anything like a 65% out of 100%, then melodic death isn't your forte. This debut shines strong and is amazing as previously mentioned. If you're a melodic death freak like me, then 'Tyrants and Men' is a definite worth purchasing. You'll be amazed by the riffs, especially if you're a guitarist like I am.

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
02/06/2012 17:06