CD Odyssey Disc 1560: Triumph

Sunday morning finds me a bit worn down and reflective. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Feeling that way on a long weekend is, well, not ideal.

A silver lining is that my latest album has energy to spare and has been giving me bursts of energy whenever I can squeeze in some listening time.

Disc 1560 is…. Thunder Seven

Artist: Triumph

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover? A modern take on Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sketch, “The Vitruvian Man”. Here Mr. Vitruvius has been upgraded with a metal exoskeleton, or maybe he’s had his bones replaced with adamantium a la Wolverine.

He is encased in some kind of geared contraption, which is foolhardy indeed. No one enslaves Mecha-Vitruvius! I can only assume he will break out of this weak-assed bit of steampunk machinery and take his vengeance up on the world a la Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”. But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: As a teenager I loved two singles off of this record “Spellbound” and “Follow Your Heart” even going so far as to tape them off of MTV when they aired (I used to sit watching MTV with my hand poised over the Pause/Record button of my stepfather’s kick-ass stereo to create mixed tapes of my favourite music).

However, I had mostly forgotten about Triumph until recently, when I watched “Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine”, a documentary on the band. It was a fascinating film that left me with two thoughts. First, that the members of Triumph seem like eminently decent human beings and second, that they made a lot of good music. So I set out to buy a bunch of my favourite records, starting with this one.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Triumph records. I like them all, but I’m going to put “Thunder Seven” in at #2.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Thunder Seven” is hard rock band Triumph’s seventh record (hence the title) and sees the band continuing to veer toward the eighties metal sound that was all the rage in 1984. It’s how they captured the attention of young metalheads like me who had foolishly considered their earlier music too “light”. However, while the singles have that metal flavour, a full appreciation of the record shows Triumph was still doing what they always had: mixing hard rock guitar riffs in with experimental blues-rock and even a bit of classic guitar.

“Spellbound” kicks things off with a bang, a metal tune about a femme fatale who is either a sorceress or just so pretty it feels like you’ve been bewitched. The music video goes with the former theory, as a mysterious woman in white lures a businessman into the desert where she subsumes his essence into a real-life version of the “Mr. Vetruvius” album cover.

I admit I was more than a little infatuated with the model cast as the sorceress in the video, but the song holds up just fine without the visuals. In particular, we are treated to Triumph’s greatest weapon; the amazing guitar work of Rik Emmett. Emmett is one of rock’s most underrated axemen, and here he provides not only one of my favourite guitar riffs ever, but a kick ass solo as well.

Emmett is classically trained, and as with many prior albums, he likes to show off some of that virtuoso talent with an instrumental. On “Thunder Seven” that is “Midsummer’s Daydream”. It is light-hearted, whimsical and markedly different than the hard-rocking power of “Spellbound”. If you buy a Triumph album expecting it to rock out from beginning to end, you’ll be disappointed. These guys like to experiment.

Not every experiment is a winner, however. “Time Canon” was a disappointment. I was expecting something bombastic and science fiction-y from this one, maybe even featuring some explosions or laser sounds. I failed to note the missing ‘n’ in the title. Nope, this is a musical canon. You know, like “Pachelbel’s Canon”, only with voices instead of violins. It is not nearly as good as “Pachelbel’s Canon” however, and as I’ve previously noted, features absolutely no cannons of any kind.

In addition to Emmett’s amazing guitar work, Triumph’s other great weapon are two amazing vocalists in Emmett and drummer Gil Moore. Both have high anthemic voices that were all the rage in rock music at this time. The kind of voices you want to sing along with but probably can’t keep up with. That’s OK, though, these anthems will encourage you to try and they’re so powerful that they’ll drown out the worst of your shortcomings.

This double threat is what allows for a classic like “Follow Your Heart” to hit the next level. Moore carries the majority of the tune, but Emmett steps in on the chorus to sing “Follow your heart” with Moore cutting him off early with “Living for today, forget about tomorrow”. The crossover of voices gives the song an extra boost of energy, but only works because these guys can both belt it out, and blend together beautifully when they do so.

That crossover also means every time you sing along to “Follow Your Heart” (and when this song comes on, you will be compelled to sing along) you’ll try to cut yourself off as you try to do both vocal parts. It won’t work, but that’s OK. Moore and Emmett have your back and will fill in the missing pieces. Just turn it up nice and loud.

Returning to “Thunder Seven” was like reacquainting myself with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. The time in between has given me a new appreciation for the music, and also allowed for a much deeper dive than my teenage self ever did. All around, a great experience.

Best tracks: Spellbound, Rock Out Roll On, Follow Your Heart, Midsummer’s Daydream, Stranger in a Strange Land