One purely for big fans of Tim “Ripper” Owens, Harry Conklin and Sean Peck 4/10
Back in 2000, the name The Three Tremors was going to be used for a project involving Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and Geoff Tate as three of the most powerful voices in metal came together. It later turned out that Tate was a substitute for the original choice of Ronnie James Dio. When that project failed to happen the name was passed on to Tim “The Ripper” Owens from Judas Priest and Iced Earth, Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin from Jag Panzer and Sean “The Hell Destroyer” Peck from Cage, Death Dealer and Denner/Shermann.
This is a really well produced album and the music is generally really good. What lets it down massively is The Three Tremors themselves. The vocals often don’t match the timing of the music, almost making it sounds like they were randomly laid over music they’d never heard before. Invaders From The Sky seems to already be in progress when it starts and is a prime example of the music and vocals not matching, the vocals manage to even run over each other in an absolute mess that’s at risk of making Metallica’s Frantic seem good.
Bullets For The Damned continues with oddly timed vocals coming in over vocals for an increasingly painful listening experience. When The Last Scream Fades is actually reasonably listenable until Harry Conklin’s wails destroy it. Conklin is incredibly talented but his voice doesn’t fit with the other two and sounds jarringly out of place in this track.
Then a miracle happens. The Wrath of Asgard almost gets the formula right with the three men taking turns with only a couple of parts where all three sing…just out of sync with each other. The Cause also fares well for the first minute or so and just about holds together. From here the album starts to really gel and Sonic Suicide is actually good. The album eventually comes to a conclusion with the song The Three Tremors which wouldn’t be too bad if the lyrics weren’t seriously cringe inducing.
The Three Tremors is the embodiment of “too much of a good thing” as it’s musically a very good classic metal album and if any one of the three were the sole singer it’d have been great. The sad thing is that all three of these guys could have been huge stars in the 80’s with the talent they have, if they’d have had the right opportunity. Also the Godawful lyrics wouldn’t have been so jarring back in the 80’s. It’s worth checking out these guys individually if trad metal is your thing because they are really talented and Conklin’s rendition of Iron Maiden’s Running Free is every bit as good as Bruce Dickinsons. Together though, it just doesn’t work that well.
If you like these guys or like this style of metal then make your own mind up from the videos below. For me it’s a 4 out of 10.
Metal Report Editor.
Ex guitarist in Zenopede, ex vocals for a goth covers band that was hailed as the future of Welsh music, former DJ, promoter and nightclub director. Writer for Gear4Geeks’ Blog4Geeks and owner of Gear4Geeks ltd. First published music critique was Kerrang letter of the Week.
Definitely has never been the future, present or past of Welsh music.