BackerKit Crowdfunding Campaign Launches May 19

WASHINGTON, D.C. — American heavy metal powerhouse A Sound of Thunder has officially announced its upcoming new full-length album, The Golden Hourglass, with a fan-powered crowdfunding campaign launching May 19 on BackerKit.

The band describes The Golden Hourglass as “a melodic heavy metal album to raise your spirits and empower you to keep hope alive through adversity,” blending soaring vocals, epic storytelling, and emotionally charged songwriting into what the group calls its most ambitious and personal work to date. 

Written during one of the most difficult periods in the band’s history, The Golden Hourglass explores themes of resilience, perseverance, and finding hope in dark times. The album tells the story of the Izena — an advanced civilization facing world-ending catastrophe — while simultaneously reflecting the band’s own struggles and rebirth. 

“This album is an expression of all of our feelings throughout the past few years,” shared vocalist Nina Osegueda. “There's a little fear, some anxiety about what's to come, but ultimately there's a lot of hope for the future.” 

The Golden Hourglass will be the first full-length album to feature drummer Justin Finger, whose technical precision and explosive energy helped inspire what the band considers its strongest material yet. 

Artist Steve Stone - best known for his work on Iron Maiden’s Brave New World and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series - provides the album’s sweeping exterior and interior gatefold cover art featuring the band’s signature hourglass symbol. The album will present the cover art without title or logos to enhance its impact.

The campaign marks the band’s transition from Kickstarter to BackerKit, continuing the fully independent, fan-funded model that has sustained A Sound of Thunder for more than 15 years. The crowdfunding campaign will feature a wide range of exclusive collector rewards, including splatter and colored vinyl editions, variant cassettes, CDs, apparel, enamel pins, embroidered patches, signed memorabilia, executive producer credits, and other limited-edition items created exclusively for supporters. 

Fans can preview music from the album and pre-order now: 

The Golden Hourglass BackerKit Campaign

About A Sound of Thunder

Founded in Washington, D.C., A Sound of Thunder has built an international following through its blend of traditional heavy metal, power metal, and hard rock. Known for its independent spirit, dynamic live performances, and ambitious concept releases, the band has spent more than a decade cultivating a fiercely loyal fanbase known as the Legion of Thunder.

We've just launched our Patreon page! 

We've kicked off our Patreon with the first public reveal of music & cover art from our new album The Golden Hourglass and a MCU-style reveal of our next five projects!

The reveal video is live now and not restricted to members, so go check it out! 

https://www.patreon.com/cw/ASoundofThunder

We're also launching with exclusive merch that will only be available to fans who support both the Patreon and the upcoming BackerKit campaign for The Golden Hourglass at any level. There are variants of the new album, a new comic release, and some fun deep-cut items for long-time fans! The items are revealed in the video linked above!

The Golden Hourglass album campaign launches in just one week, but you'll have until the end of the campaign to join the Patreon if you want the exclusives. 

So go check out the Patreon and don't forget to pre-follow The Golden Hourglass while you're at it!  

Cheers!

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Justin

All things must end. But when we hit a low point - when we were broken and scattered - we made the decision to pick ourselves back up and carry on.

The Golden Hourglass is an album about facing the dark times and finding the strength to carry on and find the light again. It's an album to empower and inspire you. It tells the story of the Izena, an advanced civilization facing a world-ending cataclysm; the story of the band going through our darkest hour; the story of life. There's no going back, there's no surrender. We move forward and make the most of each new day. We fight until the end and find joy between the battles.

This is our first full-length album featuring our latest addition: drummer Justin Finger. Justin brings chops, energy, and enthusiasm that have led us to write our best album yet. Full stop. No doubt about it. 

We are still 100% independent after 16 years and as always we'll need your support to complete this album. And as always we'll offer a slew of exclusive and badass metal rewards to our backers!

We're moving from Kickstarter to BackerKit where you can now follow the campaign and instantly receive:

• The Story of the Golden Hourglass 13-minute preview EP
• 37-minute studio documentary of our new drummer Justin Finger recording a track from the album with his unique bronze VK Drums kit
• Invitation to our private Discord server

FOLLOW THE CAMPAIGN AND GET THE PREVIEWS NOW

Together with your support we'll complete the new album and kick off a brand new era of A Sound of Thunder!

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

All digital copies of Queen of Hell: Initium - both the comic & the music - were delivered to our Kickstarter backers today! 

We wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of our backers for choosing to come on this adventure with us! 

This is not our first concept album or our first comic, but Queen of Hell: Initium turned out to be the challenge of our career so far. The road got extremely rough for a while there. But here we are basking in the light at the end of the tunnel, bruised but not broken, and delivering something we're very proud of. We suggest you take a victory lap yourself for helping make it happen. Initium truly wouldn't have been possible without your support and patience. THANK YOU, LEGION OF THUNDER! 

Tonight we celebrate with a live stream release party on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/-OdfQh_ZKFE

(This stream will be available for replay after the live event ends.)

Our comic series Queen of Hell: Initium has just been published in French translation by French publisher Idées Plus Editions! 

French-speaking fans can order La Reine De L'Enfer directly from Idees Plus Editions here: https://ideesplus.fr/produit/la-reine-de-lenfer/

Titled La Reine De L'Enfer in French, Idées Plus has presented the four issue comic series as one deluxe hardcover edition with copious amounts of bonus material including a photo feature on A Sound of Thunder and loads of Mike Ratera's pin-ups and character designs! 

Series artist Mike Ratera has been busy appearing at comic conventions all over Europe (including one in an actual palace in Lyon, France) signing and adding dedications to copies of the book! 

You can find more of Mike Ratera's Queen of Hell dedications, concept drawings, and info on his other works at his website: https://mikeratera.blogspot.com/2025/06/queen-of-hell-la-reine-de-lenfer.html

It's finally spring, and we're gearing up to send out Kickstarter rewards! Last weekend, we signed comic books for over 5 hours and livestreamed most of it. You can watch the replay here. Soon we'll have everything we need to start sending out packages, so make sure you check your e-mail for Backerkit questionnaires! 

In other news, we're booking gigs for the summer and fall of this year, so be on the lookout for shows in your town! As for right now, we have 3 booked, but we can only share one - Richmond, VA! 

We'll be returning to Chris' hometown and playing at the famous Canal Club. We haven't played Richmond since before the pandemic, so we're looking forward to seeing how much things have changed. Or stayed the same. We'll find out soon! Get your tickets here!

With the Queen of Hell: Initium campaign a success, ALL COMICS HAVE BEEN ORDERED FROM THE PRINTER! There was a lot of last minute tweaking to get everything just right, and a few cool additions (like a letters page is issue #4). The whole series was 99% done and laid out for print, but when we did our final proofread and quality check we found a number of files that had minor problems but problems that nonetheless needed to be fixed. Nina did a TON of extra work fixing those pages at the last minute, so let's hear it for the real Queen of Hell & Graphic Design! 

The newly ordered rewards should start arriving at Thunder-Manor next week. Some shipping will start mid-January. We still have to order t-shirts (these were delayed by an unexpectedly high number of survey stragglers) and trading cards (these won't affect many backers and we wanted to put some extra effort into designing these). And of course we'll have a couple of very long autograph days since we're signing almost everything for you! We'll start shipping what we can as things arrive and are signed, and expect to have everything in stock and ready to ship by the end of January. 

We also have two shows coming up in 2025, both in northern Virginia and in Baltimore! Click the posters for more info, and we'll see you soon!

Our latest project Queen of Hell: Initium is live on Kickstarter now! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asoundofthunder/queen-of-hell

Cecilia was born to serve the demon lord Udoroth. Heaven tried to turn Cecilia against her diabolical nature. But neither side considered how strong-willed Cecilia can be! Once she learns the truth about herself, and about those she thought she knew best, all bets are off. Will Cecilia help Udoroth conquer Heaven? Will she aid the Angelic forces to defeat evil? Or will she forge her own path of destruction...as the Queen of Hell?! 

Ten years ago we introduced the world to the Queen of Hell and Udoroth in both song and animation. Now we are thrilled to finally unveil their story in this four issue comic series and metal EP. The comics tell the origin of the Queen of Hell and her infernal conflict with Udoroth while the music adds detail and character perspective to the story with fist-pumping epic heavy metal! 

The four issue comic series from writer Rafer Roberts (Rick & Morty, Grumble) and Mike Ratera (Conan the Conqueror, Stalag-X) is available in single issue format with main covers by Dusan Markovic and a number of variant covers from artists Joseph Schmalke, Paulina Ganucheau, Bo Bradshaw, and Rachel Perciphone. 

Queen of Hell: Initium #1-4 Main Covers by Dusan Markovic

The Queen of Hell: Initium music EP is available on 12" vinyl in red & black splatter, glow-in-the-dark, and solid red configurations. The solid red variant is packaged in the world's first blank sketch variant record jacket, printed on uncoated reverse board and intended for artists to create original artwork directly on the jacket.  The Initium EP is also available on limited edition CD and red cassette tape. 

Queen of Hell: Initium vinyl, CD & cassette formats.

Kickstarter backers will also have exclusive access to original comic book art from Initium as well as art prints, pins, patches, trading cards, and more. 

Queen of Hell: Initium marks the relaunch of A Sound of Thunder after the retirement of co-founding drummer Chris Haren. After a one year hiatus the band will return to the studio and live stage with new drummer Justin Finger. The first song from the new lineup is entitled “Chainsaw Witch” and is available exclusively via the Initium Kickstarter campaign. 

The Queen of Hell: Initium campaign is live on Kickstarter now and ends October 26th. Back it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asoundofthunder/queen-of-hell

Hail the mighty Priest! 

In honor of the release of the new Judas Priest album Invincible Shield we're releasing our own cover of the classic "Blood Red Skies"...with just a touch of “The Hellion” in there too!

“Blood Red Skies” is streaming on all music services and is available as a download on our website and Bandcamp!

Link to the song on all streaming services from this page: https://asoundofthunder.hearnow.com/bloodredskies 

Buy directly from the band website: https://asoundofthunderband.com/single/97156/blood-red-skies

Buy directly from the band Bandcamp page: https://asot.bandcamp.com/track/blood-red-skies

Our upcoming project Queen of Hell: Initium is nearing completion! Kickstarter backers have been sent a special advance digital copy of the Initium #1 comic book and a special surprise bonus EP featuring three alternate versions of the song “Only One Can Rule” and a podcast taking a deep dive into the song's creation. 

We've also provided a big update on the future of the  band. See the full update on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asoundofthunder/queen-of-hell-initium/posts/4000730

Queen of Hell: Initium #1 - Cover A - Dusan Markovic

Only One Can Rule - Kickstarter Exclusive Bonus EP

Queen of Hell: Initium #4 - Page 06 art by Mike Ratera, colors by Max Bayo

Queen of Hell: Initium #6 - Page 09 art by Mike Ratera