THEIA – Back In Line

Theia, the three-piece Hard Rock unit from Burton-on-Trent, UK, released their sophomore effort Back In Line.  This is a well-produced album blessed with an excellent mix imparting a clean separation of vocals, drums, bass, and guitar resulting in a muscular sound. Unfortunately the quality of the songs are not up to the heavy lifting to make this an excellent album.

The album leads with a baffling atmospheric intro featuring random thunderstorm sounds, a screeching eagle, an acoustic ditty, boot steps on a hard wood floor, and chambering of a pump shotgun shell.   The second song, “My Poison” has no discernable connection to the album’s intro. It is the first in a line of six mid-tempo Hard Rock songs with uninspired riffs, weak lyrical content, and forgettable choruses.  The exception is “Signed Sealed Cemented” which comes closest to inspired riffing. The band displays the potential for greatness in free-wheeling breakouts near the end of many songs. In these moments, the band breaks free of their cookie-cutter song structure and jams on a song element; these are their shining moments.  Theia might consider channeling this spirit to improve their song writing. The album closes with a couple acoustic ballads and the epic “Afterglow” which finally breaks the mold.

Back In Line gives the listener brief moments of potential great song-writing but fails to string those moments into a cohesive whole.  Most songs follow a formulaic pattern detectable to a casual listener.  Combine this with hookless riffs and pedestrian lyrics and Back In Line becomes an album not likely to receive repeated listens.

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