Finland is famous for producing a great number of interesting, popular and successful Metal bands. From Black Metal maestros IMPALED NAZRENE through to Symphonic superstars like NIGHTWISH, this is a country with a varied and vibrant Metal scene. However, this country seem to be lacking when it comes to Thrash bands. Apart from a few, there are a lot less in the way of Thrash than you'd expect from a nation who've embraced Metal so wholeheartedly. TORNADO are one of the few bands that are playing this brand of Metal, and their second full length, "Black President", might just push them to the forefront of the Thrash scene in the Land of a Thousand Lakes.

The opening, titular track, "Black President", is a very short track with a lot of Thrash and Hard Rock guitar lines within it. At just over a minute long, it's surprisingly catchy and memorable, if incredibly jarring at some points. The following track, "I, Individual", is essentially a straight forward Crossover Thrash song with a lot of riffs and some soaring vocals that carry this track. It sounds decent, and has some more of those sleazy, Hard Rock touches to it that make it more than just another Thrash song. The third offering is "911 First Responder", a track with plenty of cool riffs and speed that help to make this song one of the best ones on the record. It's likely that this will become one of the most popular songs among fans, and would work very well in a live setting.

"Flesh Crawling Nightmare" is a much more melodic affair, closer to traditional Heavy Metal, complete with a nice, throbbing bass line that really works well on this particular track and some sweet twin guitar lines that likewise make the track sound so good. "T-Minus 10" goes down a much more Bluesy Rock track, peppered with some razor sharp Thrash riffs. "David and Goliath" is a much darker, mid-paced song that slowly builds into its main motif. This is the best song on this record by a mile, and has some genuinely inspired playing and delivery in all aspects of the instrumentation. This band should lean towards writing more material like this, because it really does sound amazing. "World Pieces" opens with some truly powerful, rhythmic drumming that really sets the rest of the music up. The riffs sound great, the vocals are equally mesmerising, and its clear that by this point on the record, the band have really hit their stride.

"Under the Crimson Moon" is another song that explores the much more fierce, vicious side of this band, and it works so well. This is yet another of this records stand out gambits. "Stop the Madness (Parts I and II)" is a brilliant, melodic and epic sounding piece of music which really acts as a great climax to this album. The albums closing song, "Ghetto Wasteland", has a lot of great guitar lines to it with plenty of hooks, which helps to bring this record to a close. It's a short, sharp shock of ferocious riffs and powerful vocals that I think most Thrash bands would be proud to call their own.

This is an album that has a lot of great moments, but also a few that fall just short of being as good as they should be. The second half of this record is extremely strong, and I think that this band should lean more towards writing songs like "David and Goliath", "World Pieces" and "Under the Crimson Moon" in the future, because this is where the band really shine and stand out from their peers. The darker turn of the music suits not only their sound, but also the provocative and memorable artwork that adorned the cover. If they head further down this musical path, I could see them taking their music to many, many more people in the not too distant future.