Formed in 2010, Tornado are now returning with their third full-length album. 2016’s ‘Black President’ gained the band quite a great deal of critical acclaim, and it is interesting to note that for this one they have managed to secure the services of some well-known guests including Nile’s Karl Sanders, Immolation‘s Ross Dolan and Pro-Pain’s Adam Phillips as well as Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth). The album was produced by Ben Varon (ex-Amoral/Oceanhoarse) with mixing, mastering and engineering by AK, Chris Paccou (FOH Engineer of Slayer). So one would expect a great deal from this album, which to be honest doesn’t really deliver.

There are times when the note density is off the scale, but while playing quickly is obviously a core part of thrash metal, it certainly isn’t the be all and end all. There are times when this morphs almost into hardcore territory, and the feeling is that while there is plenty of smoke and mirrors, the actual substance at the heart of this isn’t all that it could be. The band was actually put together by Joey Severance, who is well-known as a tour manager for extreme metal bands, and here he has decided to put “Superstar” in front of his name and uses corpse paint which has more in common with clown make-up than anything designed to send chills into people. I just can’t work out if this is meant to be taken seriously or if it is a joke, but if it is the latter I’m not getting it, and if it is the former then it’s simply not good enough, especially when the singer is a “Superstar” and the guitarist’s surname is “Shred”.

Rating: 4/10

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