You know that feeling when you want to like a band, it's a genre that you generally have positive feelings towards and the mix is pretty solid, but there's just something holding you back from really enjoying it? That was this album in a nutshell for me, there were parts that I was digging, but the band seems to find ways of taking me out of the music. I mean right off the bat I can tell you the vocals play a part of that. Not at all times though, there were places where I liked them and places where I absolutely did not. First let's dissect the genre a little bit, Thy Kingdom Will Burn is generally labeled as melodic death metal and I guess that fits the bill mostly, but there were parts of this that sounded closer to metalcore or even hardcore at times neither of which are genres I'm particularly thrilled by. Before I get into my preferences too much though I can say for those of you who like catchy melodeath bordering on metalcore this should definitely entice you. The instruments all sound excellent and fit well into the soundscape and the hooks are pretty decent. I wouldn't say any one instrument stands out above the others, it's all just solid, not great, but far from bad. I think the issue for me ends up being the focus on mid tempo tracks rather than on speed and aggression, for me if you're going to write catchy melodeath I'd at least like to have plenty of blastbeats.

It wasn't until the fifth song that the album really grabbed my attention, "The Black River" embraces that classic folky melodeath sound, and while they're not exactly reinventing the wheel, it was a nice variation in sounds. "In Company of Wolves" and "Unclean" kind of follow the same pattern; chug chug chug, followed by blast beats followed by chorus, repeat. Again, not bad but rather formulaic so some of these songs blend together. The back half of the album definitely held my interest more than the first half. "Through the Storm" and "Season of Sorrow" are thoroughly melodic death metal tracks replete with blast beats and even more importantly excellent riffs, once again not the most creative riffs, but riffs nonetheless that remind me more of bands like Ex Deo and Soilwork. War is a decent song, but come on, a melodeath song called War! with gang vocals shouting war? That's such a cliche, but at least the song has good energy and riffs. I really want to discuss "Through the Storm" though because that song above all the others drifts into my preferred realm of melodic death metal. Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum are probably my favorites in that genre and this song reminds a little bit of both, it's mid tempo most of the song, but it works because the orchestrations in the background help provide a more emotional foundation than the rest of the album. This song actually has a bit of a doomy feel to it which I also really enjoy. "Season of Sorrow" is just straight forward melodic death metal, almost reminiscent of some At the Gates which is neat. As with the rest of the album it's not exactly the most creative thing I've ever heard but the guitar work is solid and the blast beats are almost drifting into the realm of black metal so it gives it a very cold, but savage feel that I really enjoy.

The deeper I got into this album the easier it was to realize why I don't particularly like it. These guys are clearly fans of groove metal, and no judgement here, I know lots of people who like the groove element in their metal, but for me it's just not interesting. Like the guitars sound good, but they're not doing anything eminently interesting, at least to me. The parts of this album that dip into more traditional melodic death metal strike me as fairly generic and when it strays from that into "bro metal" territory (just look up Adrenaline Mob of you want to know what my friends and I term bro metal). These guys clearly have their audience and with such solid production I bet if you're into this kind of music you'd probably love this album. This is the kind of album I'll probably never listen to again, but I would watch these guys live, they seem exciting at least and their live performance would probably be more enjoyable for someone like me.