The Three Sum – Kingdom Fall

By RingMaster Review on January 26, 2023 • ( 0 )

Having made a potent impact on their homeland’s rock and metal scene for a fair while, Swiss outfit THE THREE SUM are looking at larger and broader attention and with new EP, Kingdom Fall, it is easy to expect success coming their way. The release is a powerful slab of their punk and metal fuelled sound but a collection of tracks showing it and their invention is far richer and more eventful than expectations might assume.

Since emerging more than a decade ago with a 90’s pop punk bred sound, the trio of Flavio Lamberti (vocals and bass), Pascal Artho (guitar) and Harry Müller (drums) have grown and evolved their music and creativity whilst embracing a wide weave of genres and flavours. Equally, their lyrical thoughts and observations have increasingly explored the darkest shadows and moments of a world seemingly looking for every turbulence available, it all leading to the dystopian outlook and creative adventure of Kingdom Fall.

Produced by Mack Schildknecht (CHINA, SECOND REIGN, ALL TO GET HER) and mastered by Mike Kalajian of Rogue Planet Mastering (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, NEW FOUND GLORY, A DAY TO REMEMBER), the EP is a tempest of sound and emotion; a record again offering far more flavour than that earlier mix of punk and metal would suggest.

From the moment EP opening Long Live The King opens its lures, a tide of melodic metal, sonic turmoil and punk aggression surges forth. With every passing second though strains of darker metal and melodic endeavour rise up, the track as keenly catchy as it is ravenously aggressive with seduction and brutality uniting in its voracious appetite and invention.

It is a striking ear grabbing start to the record, a memorable moment to savour which Fade To Black emulates with its rhythmically and sonically predatory presence. Yet it is a trespass and attack unafraid to reveal its emotive heart in moments of melodic calms and punk infused turns, though its irritability is never far from bubbling over as its ferocious eruptions prove before Coming After You unleashes its own mercurial landscape of sound, tension and attack. As the sounds, throughout the release Lamberti’s vocals calmly contemplate and aggressively surge, his delivery a potent reflection and ingredient in the EP’s impressive character and enterprise.

Your Worst Lullaby rises within an electronic mist but one with an ominous air which the song physically and firstly vocally soon embraces to its heart and rumination. Dramatic and climatic across its resourceful and adventurously set body, the song is an aggressive seduction to simplify its presence which, if not quite sparking the same lusty greed of its companions, left attention and enjoyment firmly hooked.

The EP’s title track closes things out, Kingdom Fall bred on anarchic thought and a wish for better times yet embroiled in the band’s core fusion of varied metal and punk rabidity. Romancing hope as it rises up in dispute against a corrupt world, the track seduces, towers up and assaults in its revolving cycles, each moment as contagious and invasive as the next.

It is a fine end to an excellent encounter, Kingdom Fall a release so easy to recommend from a band we expect seeing a new tidal wave of fans flocking their way.

The Kingdom Fall EP is out now via Dr. Music Records across usual stores.