Look for the Alternate Versions of Albums: Thor – Triumphant.

(TheBRHM.com) I’m a fan of those 80s Canadian metal bands such as thrashers Razor, Voivod, and Strappado but we’re going to get into a band we’ve touch on with Thor. The band goes back to 1973 as Centaur and began playing under the Thor name in 1977.

Centered around the mythos of Vancouver-based former Mr. USA and Mr. Canada bodybuilding champion Jon Mikl Thor, the eponymous band started out heavily rooted in the love of rock and adventures-with-swords fantasy.

Thor’s music is right up my alley thematically and you might dig them too if you’re into early Manilla Road and Manowar from the U.S, Sweden’s Heavy Load, or early Stormwitch from Germany.

The Sixth Release of Thor: Triumphant

What we’re looking at is Thor’s 2002 full-length release Triumphant and the tracklisting. When the album released, it featured ten tracks and clocked in at just 58 minutes:

1. Call of the Triumphant
2. Intercessor (from the film The Intercessor: Rock n Roll Nightmare Part 2)
3. Viking’s Funeral
4. Back for Blood
5. Anger
6. Thunderhawk
7. Everybody Needs a Hero
8. Fubar Is a Super Rocker (from the film Fubar: The Movie)
9. Hail Steeve Reeves
10. The Guardian’s Flame – An Opus by Thor I. Thunder on the Tundra, II. Crimson Twilite, III. War Hammer

I remember getting this album in 2007 as part of one of those Columbia House CD-type deals where you could get a selection of CDs for the price of one. Also in that haul was the Judas Priest compilation Metal Works ’73-’93. At the time, I remember the album being alright. I definitely enjoyed “Call of the Triumphant”, loved “Intercessor” and liked “Anger” but it was either the selection of songs or the placement of the songs that didn’t really do it for me.

It was shame because there are Thor albums I liked such as Only the Strong and Thunderstruck where the song placement wasn’t an issue. Remember, it always helps  to have a good amount of fun or great songs on each side. It isn’t unusual to get an album that is too top-heavy with all the bangers in the first half or too bottom-heavy where you have to get through some mid or decent tracks to get to the primo songs.

Look For Those Alternate Versions

I admit that Triumphant might not be the best example of an alternate release. That’s an honor that Judas Priest’s Killing Machine and Hell Bent for Leather would take. Triumphant was picked because the 2003 re-release by Scratch Records featured some slight shuffling of tracks and the addition of a few songs bringing it to 15 tracks and a length of a little over 70 minutes:

1. March to Glory
2. I Am Thor
3. Anger III
4. Call of the Triumphant
5. Intercessor (from the film The Intercessor: Rock n Roll Nightmare Part 2)
6. Slave
7. Viking’s Funeral
8. Back for Blood
9. GraveYard
10. Thunderhawk
11. Throwing Cars at People in Coke with Thor (ft. Full Blown AIDS)
12. The Guardian’s Flame – An Opus by Thor I. Thunder on the Tundra, II. Crimson Twilite, III. War Hammer
13. Fubar Is a Super Rocker (from the film Fubar: The Movie)
14. Everybody Needs a Hero
15. Hail Steeve Reeves

The extra songs were like decent bonus than tunes that gave the album a different sound or made for different listening experience but the slight tracklist shuffling made this a better listen. Sometimes you just want all the bangers in one place or in close proximity to each other. In the case of Triumphant, the songs I enjoyed the most from the original release make up a trifecta of tracks.

Meanwhile, other tracks I wasn’t initially impressed with were viewed more favorably because they were deeper into the album or had better lead-in songs. That isn’t to say that this became the Thor album—that’s either Thunderstruck or Thor Against the World—but this was the album where I first noticed tracklisting and song placement is everything.

What are some albums you believe could’ve benefited from better track placement? Are there some songs from an album you believe would be better used on a different album? Let us know in the comments!