Review by Michael on October 8, 2025.

Boom, that was quite a surprise when the promo flew into my mailbox. Clandestine and in absolute silence German Thron are back with their fifth album "Vurias" out via Listenable Records. Kicking off with some cool "Where Dead Angels Lie" memorial riff but evolves more and more into a typical Thron anthem with some super-epic melodies. Nothing to find here concerning any huge surprises guitarist PVIII told me about when I hit him up about "Vurias".

The surprises come a little bit later on that album. For example "Ungemach (Stilles Ende)" starts with almost ambient sounds, very calm and relaxing and you can see that the guys were a little bit more open-minded this time when they composed their new songs. Also that they used some German lyrics is something new here but matches quite well to Samcas' grim vocals. And the Hammond organ is something that sounds quite unfamiliar first but matches quite cool into the whole song. Out comes a very strange mind-boggling song with some crazy 70s-vibes.

Another very challenging song if you are more on the "we-hate-changes-side" is "The Hunter And The Prey". First of all the whole song sounds like an ill-fevered nightmare you struggle to get out because of the manic, repetitive riffing and to that are some strange keyboards and a saxophone added to make this bad trip complete. This is definitely not easy listening.

But for this Thron have composed some other songs like "A Hubris' Crown" that comes along pretty light and accessible in comparison to the two aforementioned  tracks. It sounds (like the guys had it on the predecessor "Dust") a little bit like Tribulation or Cloak, only with some harsh black metal vocals.

Another quite nice one to listen to is "A Paradox". Although the vocals remind a lot of Vorph / Samael and also the basic arrangements are similar to Samael at the beginning of the 00s, they soon break out of this frame and set their own marks again.

"The Metamorph's Curse" (a self-reference maybe?) starts dragging very slow and keeps up this melancholic atmosphere. Only here and there are some faster outbursts which underline the very rousing and special atmosphere in that song. It seems that the metamorphosis in the band isn't done yet and there will be many more surprises to come.

What is a very positive aspect of "Vurias" is the powerful production. It is well-balanced and I personally like the thunderous drums – they spread a lot of power in the songs. Also the vocals are well emphasized and have a bigger range than on the previous albums.

But in comparison to "Dust" Thron's fifth album has become a little bit bulkier, which doesn't make it that accessible. It truly is a really good album but I needed some time to get into some of the tracks. Because of that "Dust" which I gave 10/10 back then is still #1 in my Thron-ranking.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10