Heavy Metal Band TOC Breaks Through With Loss Angeles

Artist: TOC
Title: Loss Angeles
Genre: Metal/Heavy, Symphonic Black, Progressive
Label: Inside Out Music-www.insideoutmusic.com
Website: www.tocrocks.com

The Finnish band TOC (formerly known as Throne of Chaos) have made a major breakthrough to take their careers to the next level by signing with top progressive/metal label Inside Out Music.

With their new album Loss Angeles, you may find one of the most diversely cross-populated albums that you will hear all year. Let me put it this way, their music is as different and changing as the bizarre cover of this CD. However, if you look at their past album covers you will see that this is standard. Offering something with a different shade or color seems to be their modus operandi.

I do not know where to start with this band, they rock hard and fast, play a little jazz-fusion, black metal, complete with the belly growls…they are musical chameleons, there is not other way to explain what they do. They even play rock-pop, which has you believing that an entirely different band jumped into the studio for a few cuts then left. It is startlingly strange, but in the same token very cool and quite good. My tastes are across the board pretty much so I really enjoy music like this, except for the black metal and the irritating growling (not singing), fortunately they do it so little it’s easy to forget and move on and jump into everything else that is going on with this CD.

TOC’s musicianship is exceptional, no question there, they all know how to play and have a firm grasp of what direction they are going on every track. That in and of itself is a marvel with the different styles they wander off into during the run of this recording. With the exception of their cover of "Smoke On The Water," which totally sucked, this is a solid album.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck-http://www.muzikreviews.com

April 9, 2004

Rating-8/10

1. The Window (4:52)
2. Mary Lou Is Dead (5:22)
3. Acid Highway (5:10)
4. Gothamburg (6:02)
5. Blue Lady (5:18)
6. Wait (3:49)
7. The Blue Lady Suite (5:18)
8. Break-A-Neck (2:58)
9. Bite The Bullet (6:42)
10. Smoke On The Water (2:35)
Bonus Track:
11. Night Crawler (5:40)

TOC Line-up:

Tuomas Nieminen - vocals
Rasmus Nora - bass
Taneli Kiljunen - guitar
Joiku Harmaja - guitar
Carl Sjöblom - keyboards
Snake Laitinen - drums

TOC Website
Artist Website