Lost City

Sonorously gliding forth, out of New York City, with an auxiliary and independent single released in June, digitally as well as on 7" vinyl, titled Lost City (Sodom and Gomorrah, at bottom of Dead Sea, possibly?) is Shadowland, which is long due for an eventual full-length debut, coming as it would on the wheels of a four-track 2018 demo and subsequent, comparatively long - but no less tame - EP creepily called The Watcher, in 2019. (Either way, the cover art, now, takes precedence over last, dismal visual instalment.)

Above all, Shadowland front woman Tanya Finder displays comparable euphony and grit as Night Viper's Sofia Johanssen, Tower's Sara Beth Linden and Sölicitör's Amy Lee Carlson, albeit, with her own singular touch of husky slyness, be it on side A reprisal (from said demo) "Lamia" which begins, stoutly enough, to eldritch and folksy, fifty second long Deep Purple-meets-Tanith synth styled intro before segueing into plumpy riff-raffed, four on the floor heady thump-fest which brings to swollen mind a bubbling ooze cross between Spain's newly parcelled Aeroscreamer - a further keyboard adept - and aforementioned fellow New Yorkers Tower.

Low end production prevails as always, yet, as inferred, the gang has reached junction where it's time to step up to the plate and deliver in a much more commodious manner. Nevertheless, the B side, or "Lost City" proper, has all the hallmarks of a winner, with its teetering main guitar lick, stoically palmed muted asides and Miss Finder's portentous baritone low-mid range, which, hasten I to add, drips with ebullience, rancour and spite - not to point of cliched overkill, but rather, roly-poly jubilance and fulsome engagement.

In any case, the leads on both tracks, slay like Thracian warriors, whilst that carnivalesque wobble-riff inherent to "Lost City" sure as heck reminds me a lot of some good old Flight-from-Norway, as well as sadly split (up) all-too-soon Midnight Prey, of Germany. Shadowlands' latest, however frugal or sparse, is not to be missed!