The Road Less Travelled

The Norwegian collective of Triosphere was a totally new acquaintance to me with this, their second album which is quite an intriguing surprise to round off the year with. Playing very melodic metal that falls somewhere between the realms of power-spiced traditional metal and progressive metal, I guess you could say they don’t fall that far off in comparison to their countryfellows, Pagan’s Mind. The progressive trickery and widdling is kept at a relatively low level, there to spice up the metallic chugging. First off, I gotta give props to the band’s singer/bassist Ida Haukland, whose commendable pipes produce a tone with a very peculiar feel from somewhere between Ronnie James Dio and Rhapsody’s Fabio Lione. It’s damn refreshing to hear a female-fronted metal band that doesn’t dabble at all with the gothic operatic wails and such but goes much more traditional with the timbre to back it up. The instrumental performances of the band are really slick as is the production job that succeeds in bringing both balance and power to all aspects of the soundscape. With the technicalities very well handled, I’d say the only thing holding this album from a higher score is the absence of some bonafied smash hits from the evenly good quality batch of tunes. The most frantic guitar riffage in the intro song Ignition and in the beginning of Driven makes one expect even some Iced Earth-level chugging metal ownage, but such smashing intensity isn’t kept up throughout, although Driven is still among the top of the present bunch. Marionette is the most notable example of the group’s apparent ambitions of in turn adding some bluesy as well as subtle classical music elements into their material while The Anger And The Silent Remorse is the best showcase here of the dynamics they can implement between mellow atmospherics and the rocking passages. Speaking of rocking, noteworthy is also the 80s-tinged Watcher that has a distinct vibe of classic W.A.S.P. in the catchy chorus. Bass drum-fanatics are best served with 21 and Worlds Apart, which reach commendably towards anthemic fields of fists held high en masse. In summation, The Road Less Travelled is a seriously positive showing from a band that has a promising target with their sound and the evident chops and skills to get there. Just give ‘em time and follow the proceedings.