The spirals all over the album may remind you of the Swirling Eddies, but they aren't that weird. Their name may remind you of Third Day, but they're not that Southern. The photo in the liner notes may remind you of early Guardian, but they're not that dated. The song title "Sleeping Giant" may remind you of Petra, but they're not that cheesy.
So what are they?
In short, they're heavy metal. There's a strong King's X vibe all over the album, but they're not a carbon copy by any means. There's enough originality in both the lyrics and the music to keep a listener's interest for a while. Unfortunately, it doesn't do much more than keep one's interest.
There's nothing spectacular about 3rd Day Rising--they're neither terrible nor incredible. Part of this may be because they're playing a style of music that supposedly died in the late 1980s, but there are other reasons. For one thing, lead singer Chris Edwards has a mid-range, nasal voice that doesn't quite fit with the music. It almost reminded me of Bob Dylan singing for Petra, which just isn't a good thing.
The music is still very fun and high-energy, though, and would be a good buy for a hardcore fan of 80s melodic metal.
3 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by James StewartOnce there was a band called Third Day. In fact, there were two bands called Third Day, so this bunch of hard rockers from the UK metamorphosed themselves into 3rd Day Rising. For many years now providing the Greenbelt (and other) crowds with a dose of vintage hard rock/heavy metal, they have kept their fans waiting quite some time for this follow up to Paper Chain. The sound is fuller than on…Similar sounding releases
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