THUMOS / SPACESEER - The Course Of Empire CD Digisleeve

"A timeless masterpiece."

- Purple Chronicles (France)

“What Thumos and spaceseer provide is an immense, powerful, intense and heavy experience based in progressive post but not exclusive to it. Elements of doom and death, heavy on the atmosphere and with layered electronica. Musically, it can be as thrilling as the story-telling aspect.

Put the two together and The Course of Empire proves itself to be triumphant and unique effort.” 9/10

- GBHBL (UK)

“Concept album, "The Course Of Empire" must be apprehended in its desperate globality, a monolith which little by little cracks. Written with several hands with Spaceseer, it confirms at the same time the singularity of Thumos as well as its creative force doubled with an insolent fertility.” 4/5

- Music Waves (France)

“This is a very interesting and remarkably cohesive collaboration between what initially felt like two disparate acts. That both Thumos and spaceseer have been able to not just meet in the middle but completely compliment each other, is very impressive indeed.” 4/5

- Sea of Tranquility

“I know some will call this Post Black and Doom Metal, and they may be right, but I fell that is too vague. To me, this would be the perfect music for one of those very disturbing movies, where repetition and mind-blowing are the order of the day. As THUMOS doesn’t use vocals, it has to be the musicality of it all that makes the album stand out. And thankfully it does just that. Just listen to the lengthy song “Arcadian” and close your eyes. Picture and feel the desperation and desolate state of the landscape they are describing, and what horrible events might be taking place whilst this music is distracting you.” 8/10

- Metal Temple

"It's not just doom (that would not interest me much), it's not just post-metal, it's a good mix with progressive elements. Most of what my colleague said still stands. If you love Thumos you will love this album as well."

- DPRP (Netherlands)

“Just as their albums shift and change so too does each track on this release, with the album never feeling dull or repetitive for even a moment. There's a sort of mysticism present on the album in its more awe-inspiring moments, however these moments are balanced out by some of the more ominous and threatening moments on the release.

Overall, this album is an instrumental masterpiece that easily rivals The Republic. I wouldn't say one is better than the other, rather they're just different and each satisfies different areas of my taste.”

- Cave Dweller Music

“A longer than average song (Arcadian), it takes us on a trip. Mystical and mysterious at first, it begins to transform into a towering edifice of fear and then explodes in a ravishing attack of furiously battering percussion, swaths of incendiary riffing, and the ring of a lead guitar that’s pure sorcery. There’s an ebb in the torrent that takes the music in beguiling directions, and the bass work in that interlude is wonderful.

The music rings and rumbles again in electrifying fashion, with the melodic lead soaring over an earthquake, building into a maelstrom of searing chords and off-the-chain drumming, but the song’s glorious central melody continues to burrow ever-deeper into the mind. Stupendous stuff!”

- No Clean Singing

“The Course of Empire” has delivered a masterful piece of art and music that’s energetic, awe-inspiring/beautiful, eight long picturesque songs (part from tracks four & six -which are less than two minutes of playtime) that are grand & epic.

Another perfect and enjoying/entertaining release -neither dull nor repetitive."

- Metal 1on1 (UK)

“Thumos always delivers high quality instrumental jams, and are unique among their peers for using ancient philosophy as a basis for the music. Their last release, The Republic, was based on the philosophy of Plato, and was instantly one of my favorites from January 2022. Now they are gearing up for a July 4th release for their next record, The Course of Empires, an experimental effort unlike anything I’ve heard recently. ”

- Tom’s Reviews