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I don't know about you but I love it when a band really steps up and delivers a performance far above what you expected. That describes the first time I heard Triosphere's The Road Less Travelled. Having been underwhelmed by the band's monotonous debut, Onwards, I admit I wasn't paying that much attention to them. Then I started seeing some talk of the new album on the message boards here at The Metal Crypt and thought I'd best check it out. Let me assure you right now there is no sophomore slump for Triosphere.

The Road Less Travelled is an excellent synthesis of Heavy and Power Metal music with some truly outstanding performances that take the band to the next level. The first thing that grabbed me was the songs themselves. The writing on The Road Less Travelled is miles ahead of Onwards. Triosphere "discovered" melody this time around, something missing from the simple "riff-riff-riff" song structure of the debut. These softer, more melodic passages are mixed deftly with equally crushing riffs, keeping the heaviness, but making the songs more enjoyable and diverse. Singer/bassist Ida Haukland has either picked up her game or the new songs have given her the freedom to actually SING. And sing she can. The leather-lunged shouts are still there, but she also adapts to the slower tempos with a deep, rich voice not unlike Nancy Wilson of Heart. Check out the melody and harmony vocals on the chorus from "The Death of Jane Doe" to see what I mean. Of course, she can still wreck eardrums as is obvious on tracks like "The Human Condition" and "Watcher." Guitarist Marcus Silver Bergesen has also made some huge strides with his leads. These are not the typical "ok, it's that part of the song where a random solo gets inserted." These are well played, well thought out enhancements to the songs that are a pleasure to hear.

I am very impressed with The Road Less Travelled and have been listening to it frequently over the last couple of weeks. There are some clunkers on the album (the title track is less than inspiring) but they are so few and far between that the album still flows. Excellent female fronted, non-symphonic Heavy/Power Metal from Triosphere. Recommended.