Triosphere - 'Oceans Above, Stars Below' Frontiers Album review

Triosphere was a familiar name that grabbed my attention on the Frontiers release list at the end of August. I hadn’t heard the Norwegian band’s name for several years but I immediately fondly recalled seeing them play in Glasgow a few years ago. Whilst I definitely remembered their performance, I couldn’t remember who they were supporting. When I looked it up, it was a March 2011 gig at The Garage headlined by Sonata Arctica, with Labyrinth also on the bill, but it was definitely Triosphere that made the biggest impression on me.

I’m still not sure where they’ve been since their last album in 2014, but their 4th album ‘Oceans Above, Stars Below’ is a cracker and I really enjoyed it. Musically, they hit hard in the sweet spot between classic hard rock and power metal with some prog-lite twists thrown in.

After a short instrumental opener, ‘Of Tyrants’ is a powerful blast of power metal but without any excesses or high-pitched histrionics. Singing bass-player Ida Haukland exerts power and control throughout an epic and melodic song that ebbs and flows and features a typically restrained guitar solo picked out by the original member Marius Bergesen on guitar.

The title track mixes melody with hard-hitting riffs and drumming and absolutely soars on the chorus. One of my favourites is ‘Shorelines’ which sounds authentically 1980s hard rock and hits the spot musically and vocally. ‘Embers’ barrels along at quite a rate, while ‘Cadence of Chaos’ at nearly six minutes is probably the most prog metal one and moves through the gears nicely.



Overall, the album is hard-hitting but slips in subtleties and melodies at every turn and the vocals were very much to my taste. I highly recommend it.

It’s good to have them back and I think I will enjoy slipping back into their earlier work too