I guess the easiest way to explain this EP is to say that Vincent Projects sounds like someone found a lost heavy metal band from the late ’70s, right before they accidentally flew into the Bermuda Triangle, and decided to finish mixing the tapes out of sheer curiosity. Not in a nostalgia-bait, “remember when rock was real” way, but in the much funnier, more sincere sense of someone earnestly committing to a ridiculous, maximalist version of heavy metal and refusing to blink.
“Thunder Empire” EP is loud, theatrical, and deeply unbothered by modern restraint. It opens with “Emperor of the Ancient Thunder,” a nearly six-minute declaration of intent that immediately tells you what kind of ride you’re on. Big riffs, heroic pacing, and a title that sounds like it should be embroidered on a denim jacket. The song doesn’t rush itself. It lets the guitars stretch out, lets the drama breathe, and establishes the EP’s central philosophy: if you’re going to be over-the-top, you might as well be all the way over-the-top. There’s a glam-metal shine here, but it’s paired with a slightly heavier, moodier edge that keeps it from tipping into parody.
“Hellbound Horizons” follows and leans harder into that cinematic feel. The riffs feel engineered for slow-motion strutting, like the soundtrack to a montage where someone puts on sunglasses indoors and nobody questions it. There’s a sense of scale to the track; the kind that makes you picture desert highways, flames, or at least a very expensive smoke machine. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it understands exactly why the wheel was fun in the first place. If this showed up in a Peacemaker Season 2 needle drop, it wouldn’t feel out of place for a second.
By the time “Steelheart Dominion” rolls in, the EP starts to feel less like a collection of songs and more like a unified aesthetic. This is where the glam-rock comparison really locks in. There’s something here that recalls bands like Autograph or modern acts like Foxy Shazam: the confidence, the slightly campy bravado, the sense that the music knows it’s ridiculous and is choosing to be anyway. The guitar work stays punchy and melodic, prioritizing hooks over technical showboating, which keeps the track accessible even as it leans into metal excess.
The closer, “Warcry of the Broken Planet,” might be the most interesting track on the EP. It pulls together everything Vincent Projects has been setting up: apocalyptic imagery, big riffs, and a sense of dramatic finality. There’s a faint sci-fi tint to the atmosphere, like classic metal filtered through a space opera lens. It feels like an ending, not just to the EP, but to a concept album that maybe exists in another timeline. The pacing is tight, the energy sustained, and it lands with a satisfying sense of scale rather than overstaying its welcome.
What really works across the EP is commitment. Vincent Projects isn’t hedging or undercutting the drama with irony. This isn’t metal-as-joke or retro cosplay. It’s metal played straight-faced, but with enough self-awareness to make it fun rather than exhausting. The production supports that vision well: clean enough to let the riffs punch, but not so polished that it loses grit. Everything sounds intentional, from the song lengths to the larger-than-life titles.
If there’s a limitation here, it’s that the EP stays firmly within its chosen lane. You’re not going to find radical genre pivots or unexpected sonic left turns. But honestly, that feels less like a flaw and more like part of the charm. This is an EP that knows exactly what it wants to be and delivers it without apology.
All in all, Vincent Projects offers something refreshingly straightforward: heavy, melodic, theatrical rock that sounds like it escaped from another era and decided to stick around. It’s dramatic, fun, and surprisingly cohesive. If you like glam-leaning metal with big hooks, bigger energy, and a flair for the dramatic, this EP earns its thunder.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
