Thunderlover is celebrating the release of its debut album, “Size Doesn’t Matter,” produced by Brian Whitten, Aug. 2 at Blind Bob’s. Dayton bands Never Try and She’s Deadly will also be performing.
Thunder rumbles before the kick and bass lock in on the album’s titular opening track. Rain begins to mist, seemingly summoned by the Crowley-worshipping guitar riffs, as Wickline channels his “Blizzard of Ozz”-era Ozzy, growling “thunderlover” like a sedated lightning bolt. The passion of four dudes who love to rock permeates like this through the entire record.
Three singles — “Let’s Get It On,” “Lost My Pants (Raise Your Glass),” and “Rabbit Hole” — were released ahead of the forthcoming full-length, giving a sense of the band’s high-energy rock and roll and taste for tongue-in-cheek lyricism. The futuristic, “Heavy Metal” iconography the band commits to, with cartoonish electricity being a consistent motif, feels on brand for a group that pulls influence from big hair bands.
But despite what it lets on sonically and superficially, “Size Doesn’t Matter” is subtly more rooted in grunge.
Koverman first cut his teeth on “Appetite for Destruction” riffs, but it was Nirvana that made the guitar feel truly within reach.
Owens kept time with hair metal, but he learned to play the drums via grunge — even admitting he sometimes unapologetically rips fills from Helmet and Pearl Jam.
As a vocalist, Wickline channels Scott Weiland, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, and Layne Staley, despite the album’s opening track sounding eerily informed by Black Sabbath.
Blackbern was late to the interview, which is arguably the most grungy thing that could’ve happened outside of not showing up at all.
At its best, Thunderlover is dumb, loud, and fun — rock and roll without pretense. It channels the hugeness of the Sunset Strip in the ’80s, stripped of glam excess and spandex, and filters it through a flannel-clad Gen X lens. It shouldn’t work, but somehow does.
It should be explicitly noted that no one in Thunderlover wears their hair like any member of Cinderella. Flamboyance isn’t a virtue, either, though there is one earring among them.
“I think there’s something about taking a step back and saying ‘we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time,’” said Wickline, who is the band’s primary lyricist. “We aren’t out to be the most serious. We aren’t out to try and show you what great musicians or singers we are. The ‘80s were just about having fun, and I think that’s where we fell and felt comfortable. We only get 45 minutes out here to play, so let’s just see how tonight goes.”
While the band does pride itself on being a lively, somewhat comical hard rock band, songs like “No Remedy” and “Enjoy the Ride” explore darker themes — though they always end up somewhere triumphant.
Whether Thunderlover leans further into grunge or doubles down on the metal, its first album will always be called “Size Doesn’t Matter.” That alone is hard to forget.
The name came from a small batch of comically small stickers Wickline ordered online one drunken night. The innuendos from then on were endless: There’s the obvious cliché, the one that can’t be printed here, but there’s also the idea that they could call themselves “the biggest band in Dayton,” as Owens suggested — since a few of the members “retain a lot of water” (Wickline’s words).
“Size Doesn’t Matter” — along with the fact that the band is self-deprecating and nose-blind enough to take publicity photos in the Blind Bob’s men’s bathroom — plays into the idea that Thunderlover is here for our amusement, alone.
It takes from hair metal just as much as it takes from grunge, truly forging an homogenous anomaly that’s usually oil and water.
But Thunderlover isn’t here to break from the same old, same old, and it don’t get better, baby. How can I resist?
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Thunderlover album release show, with Never Try and She’s Deadly
When: 9 p.m. Aug. 2
Where: Blind Bob’s, 430 E. 5th St., Dayton
Cost: $10
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