THUNDER – Laughing On Judgement Day [2-CD remastered]

British hard rock institution THUNDER will release a new album soon, and after the recently posted here ‘The Chameleon Session’ (released this year), one of you asked for their classic albums remastered with bonus material.
“Laughing On Judgement Day” is the second full-length album by British Hard Rock wonders, and one of their best. This digitally remastered and expanded edition includes a stupendous bonus CD that features studio and live B-sides from the album’s now rare and out of print singles.

Simply put, “Laughing On Judgement Day” is fantastic, for sure one of the best (Melodic) Hard Rock albums from the Nineties.
With this little masterpiece for the genre, Thunder might follow in the footsteps of Def Leppard or Whitesnake and actually conquer America with their powerful recipe of refined melodic hard rock.

But, when faced with the ever more hostile musical environment of the early ‘90s (read: Seattle), all they managed was a smattering of critical support and a number of hit singles in their homeland.
Still, despite producing but one big hit in the infectious, horn-punctuated “Everybody Wants Her,” Thunder’s sophomore album, 1992’s “Laughing on Judgement Day”, was anything but a slump, and may in fact have been the strongest all-around effort of the group’s career.

Among the highlights, “The Moment of Truth” and “Today the World Stopped Turning” packed massive, irresistible choruses, while “Low Life in High Places” and “Empty City” provided stunning showcases for the formidably soulful voice of singer Danny Bowes (a latter day David Coverdale, in the best sense).

All tracks on this album have something interesting and catchy like the partly funky “The Moment of Truth” and “Does It Feel Like Love?”.
Then, if you look for that awesome, polished AOR sound from the early 90s, check the terrific “Fire To Ice”, meticulously arranged and executed.

You gotta admire Thunder: their songwriting is just impeccable. Their melodies are just so well-put-together, everything is right where it should be and does what it’s supposed to do. It’s like they wrote the book on Commercial Hard Rock Songwriting here, still plenty of soul.
This 2-CD remastered reissue of “Laughing On Judgement Day” is a must have, with its superb bonus disc, again, full of great – and almost impossible to find . tunes.
Excellent

CD1: Original album remastered
01 – Does It Feel Like Love?
02 – Everybody Wants Her
03 – Low Life In High Places
04 – Laughing On Judgment Day
05 – Empty City
06 – Today the World Stopped Turning
07 – Long Way From Home
08 – Fire To Ice
09 – Feeding The Flame
10 – A Better Man
11 – The Moment Of Truth
12 – Flawed To Perfection
13 – Like A Satellite
14 – Baby I’ll Be Gone

CD2: Bonus Tracks / B-sides
01 – She’s My Inspiration
02 – With A Little Help From My Friends
03 – Low Life In High Places (Demo)
04 – Everybody Wants Her (Radio Edit)
05 – Dirty Love (Acoustic Version)
06 – Higher Ground (Acoustic Version)
07 – Like A Satellite (Live)
08 – Gimme Shelter
09 – The Damage Is Done
10 – Higher Ground (Live)
11 – Lazy Sunday (Live)
12 – Bigger Than Both Of Us
13 – Dangerous rhythm
14 – Everybody wants her
15 – New York, New York: Harry’s theme (Live)

Danny Bowes – vocals
Luke Morley – guitars, backing vocals, harmonica, piano
Ben Matthews – guitar, organ, piano
Mark “Snake” Luckhurst – bass, acoustic bass
Gary “Harry” James – drums, percussion, backing vocals

BUY IT !
www.amazon.com/Laughing-Judgement-Day-Thunder/dp/B002ASVQWQ
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