Ordained: Thunder Roar | Simple Things Sound Good Too
(2025 – Girder Records)
At this point, you’re already a bit fed up with all these weird or strange formulas. Everyone thinks they have—or wants to discover—the secret formula, and in the end, it all ends up sounding more or less the same. Nothing new, of course. And then suddenly you come across albums like this one that prove that to make a good, entertaining, rousing, and rocking album, at the end of the day, all you need are good songs, attitude, a defiant voice, bass, drums, and a guitar that rocks. What else? Well, that’s where we can start to discover Ordained.
In any case, “Thunder Roar” is Ordained’s debut album, a project featuring Randy Swingle, who handles rhythm guitars and backing vocals, and Erik Nelson, who handles lead guitars, bass, and drums. The participation of the well-known Dale Thompson of Bride on vocals gives you more than enough reason to check this out. And that’s not all—Troy Thompson of Bride, John Schlitt of Petra, and Tiago James De Souza of Perpetual Paranoia are also part of the lineup.
The band was originally called “Swingle And Thompson Ordained Band,” but they eventually settled on simply the name Ordained, under which they are releasing this electrifying album titled “Thunder Roar” in 2025—a record that makes simplicity one of its main strengths.
Indeed, Ordained delivers an album that focuses primarily on great songs—intense, packed with powerful riffs, and rooted in a predominantly agile and promising Hard Rock sound. There’s a bit of everything here: a touch of Kiss, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and more, creating an album that takes us down the path of intensity that’s long since been lost along the way.
“When The Thunder Roars” is the first track to play as soon as we hit play on our device. With a relentless, hard-hitting drive, Ordained delivers a more than interesting opening, while “Total Fire” leans toward classic hard rock with a strong whiff of ’80s Californian glam, yet with a sound aesthetically rooted in the ’90s and beyond.
A lovely melody accompanies “You Are All I Need,” another healthy dose of hard rock mayhem, reminding us of the good old days of big hair, blaring guitars, and strident choruses. Meanwhile, “Flaming Fires And Shooting Starz” weaves together some tremendous riffs with a darker vibe and a certain alternative edge, yet without losing the rock pulse that dominates everything Ordained does.
More guitar riffs and hard, rock-driven beats are what we find in “Thundering Heavens,” and things get intense with “High Voltage Current,” featuring a hard, intense riff that frames nearly the entire track, and which, alongside Dale Thompson’s raw screams, makes it one of the album’s heaviest tracks. The vibe shifts completely with “Shout It!”, a different kind of song, with a rock ‘n’ roll feel and a certain country vibe that throws us off just enough to let us get carried away. Here, none other than the great John Schlitt of Petra appears as a guest on the mic, sharing vocal duties with Dale Thompson and Randy Swindle.
But it doesn’t end there. There’s also some blues—and good blues at that, folks! That’s what “Time Is Running Out” is all about, with those endless guitar solos and riffs that, together with the bluesy foundation, give it a different vibe from the rest of the album but in no way feel out of place. Quite the opposite. In fact, the rock vibe remains strong on “Deep Rivers Of The Heart.”
“Risen From The Dead” doesn’t feel out of place either. In the vein of AC/DC and even a touch of Kiss, Ordained is still capable of unleashing even more energy, just like on “Tornado Of Fire,” with some interesting riffs and Dale Thompson’s screams pushed to the limit, in a pounding, intense structure—and perhaps one of the album’s best moments.
The album closes with “Wickedness Destroyed,” which plays with different tempos amid soaring guitars of varying intensity.
Ordained is just rock—or rather, hard rock—and yet, that alone doesn’t tell the whole story. You have to listen to the whole of “Thunder Roar” to better understand the point. It’s not just about the style, but the way the guitars soar here and there, the driving force of Dale Thompson’s vocals, the strong and fierce rhythm section, and so on. Ordained holds nothing back, unleashing a rock arsenal here that we thought had been forgotten.
But it’s not as if everything harks back to the good old days. The album focuses on recapturing the intensity and power of classic hard rock, with a modern sound shaped by deep, dark tones, where the guitars take center stage, delivering heavy riffs and spine-tingling solos.
On the other hand, the songs have a lot to say. They’re varied, intelligent, and tight. All of this makes “Thunder Roar” a highly listenable and very interesting album. In fact, it’s hard to single out one track over the others, since from start to finish, Ordained maintains a kind of intensity that suits them very well.
The production of this album is noteworthy. Recorded primarily at “Eclipse Studios” in Normal, IL, with additional sessions in New Zealand, California, and Kentucky, the recording, mixing, and mastering were handled by Erik Nelson himself, who, as mentioned, also took charge not only of the guitars but also the bass and drums, rounding out a very strong production effort, highlighting that deep, powerful sound that suits “Thunder Roar” so well. Thus, the album delivers a sense of immersion and heaviness that perfectly enhances every song on this release.
The artwork doesn’t offer much in the way of innovation. The cover, while featuring noteworthy illustrative excellence, doesn’t stand out for its originality. In any case, both the inner sleeve and the rest of the design are of high quality, including photographs of the members of Ordained and the distinguished guests on this Heavy Rock release. Naturally, it also includes the song lyrics, with a strong and direct Christian message—straightforward, one might say.
“Thunder Roar” is a great album, without a doubt. It’s true, there’s no Heavy Metal here, but its heavy sound, its echoes of the old days of Hard Rock, the guitar work Ordained delivers here, and so on, make this album something to take note of. It reminds us of how a Rock band should sound, and that’s what ultimately matters.
Unfortunately, there are no vinyl editions of this great album. It’s only available on CD, and of course, as a digital download (which we never recommend). Here’s one of the tracks from the album for you to enjoy a good rock moment—and a heavy one, of course…
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