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Thundermother: Heat Wave Deluxe Edition

Towards the end of 2020 I reviewed the fourth album from Swedish four piece Thundermother, suggesting that their ‘recipe is simple - record some riffs that have clearly been hidden in the AC/DC vaults, add a slice of a Joan Jett sneer and a Lzzy Hale-alike vocal snarl from Guernica Mancini and hey presto its time to sweat in this Heat Wave…. There are no surprises whatsoever and you know what? I still love it. Sometimes what you need is to rock your roll and Thundermother know how to do exactly that!’ And I stand by that assessment, which you can read in full HERE

Not content with releasing the ten track effort I reviewed, the band also put out an extended edition with a further three studio cuts (which are also covered in the previous review), but now things have grown even more Thundermotherous, with a two disc, Deluxe Edition finding all 13 of those cuts still contained on CD1and a further 10 on a brand new companion disc.

So, what can those looking for even more AC/DC meets Joan Jett from a female quartet look to find here? Well, as you might expect, given the short length of time between release versions, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, with three more studio offerings sitting alongside three acoustic cuts, three live recordings and the previous (I believe) single only release “Rock And Roll Heaven”, which features Dergen (Backyard Babies/Hellacopters) and Pontus Snibb (Bonafide). Does all of that make this album worth reinvesting in as their label, AFM Records clearly hope it does? Well, probably not, unless you are a real avid follower of the band (of which there are plenty), but for those who maybe didn’t quite take the plunge last time, surely now there’s no excuse not to?

Dealing with that last track first, Heat Wave was the band’s first album not to feature a song with the phrase Rock And Roll in it, so maybe it’s fitting that it now does? Either way it’s a slow anthemic track where singer Guernica Mancini, clearly revels going toe to toe with Snibb, while Dregen brings his usual and undoubted class to proceedings. In truth though, to me it’s maybe the least exciting of the studio side of things here, “The Road Is Ours” providing a bluesy blast, “Show Me What You Got” a full throttle outburst and “You Can’t Handle Me” a mid-paced authority that plays right into this band’s ballpark.

Surprisingly, given the no nonsense Rock these ladies purvey, the acoustic section also really works, three Heat Wave cuts given a quite magnificent lighter touch that highlights their inner strength, while Mancini, once more, proves an absolute star in this stripped back setting. All three - “Driving In Style”, “Dog From Hell” and “Sleep” - are excellent, but it’s the latter that really grabs the attention, DAD’s Jesper Binzer duetting with Mancini to great effect on this classy number.

Add in four high octane live blasts and really, you can’t go wrong. Thundermother don’t intend to reinvent the wheel, or anything else for that matter, but when they rock, roll and boogie as convincingly as they do here, why should that matter?


Track Listing
CD1
1. Loud And Alive
2. Dog From Hell
3. Back In ‘76
4 Into The Mud
5. Heat Wave
6. Sleep
7. Driving In Style
8. Free Ourselves
9. Mexico
10. Purple Sky
11. Ghosts
12. Somebody Love Me
13. Bad Habits


CD2
1. The Road Is Ours
2. Show Me What You Got
3. You Can ́t Handle Me
4. Driving In Style (Acoustic)
5. Dog From Hell (Acoustic)
6. Sleep Feat. Jesper Binzer (Acoustic)
7 . Give Me Some Lights (Live)
8. Thunderous (Live)
9. Hellevator (Live)
10. Rock'n'Roll Heaven (feat. Dregen & Pontus Snibb)

Added: July 16th 2021
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Thundermother online
Hits: 663
Language: english

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