The Watcher

Plumply audible in all its resounding torpor is New York City's Shadowland, a fairly up-and-coming twin-guitar quintet whose latest offering, The Watcher EP, entails three kick-ass, fist-pumping originals - along with a jiving reprise of Coven's "Wicked Woman" - sure to stir up unassailable bouts of frenzied, mondo re-playable excitement in even the most conservative and/or serene genre "connoisseur".

Limited to fifty cassette copies, as well as digitally, this "voyeur" instantly grips with "Heads Are Gonna Roll" (Rob Halford exults!) thanks to front woman Tanya Finder's huskily ballsy, downright fiery demeanour largely reminiscent of a heady Southern cross between Crystal Viper's Marta Gabriel and Pat Benatar from days of yore. That said, her rebellious slyness, compounded by slackened & chill vocal inflections - notably during the chorus to shuffling albeit platonically titled head bopper "Easy Livin'" - are solely matched by the axe men's tautly intermittent and compressive, shrieking leads which, particularly on this last, evoke a cranked out Victor Griffin...so yeah, there's cause for celebration.

Granted, the creepily haunting cover art is a tad misleading as, instead of adhering to sombre, caliginous overtures, Shadowland represents everything I dig about upbeat and harmonious heavy metal akin to Widow, Lady Beast or Substratum, for want of perfunctory, but none-too-funky, futuristic examples. The longest cut, the five minute-plus "Nightland (Dream of X)" is a terrific showcasing of both said sing-along mesmerization and dually woven guitar chops, highly akin to Helloween/Iron Maiden at the top of their game, while I can honestly say the Empire Statesmen/woman's cover of Jinx Dawson's master stroke is easily the strongest i.e. best I've heard since Amulet's shockingly stout, however masculine, take back in '14 - and that's saying something, as I've gleaned aplenty. In fact, the rhythm section drives this baby forward with so much high flying energy, it's downright infectious.

The Watcher is so much fun, I wholly need to dig out Shadowland's no-name, as well as 100% genuine i.e. original, four-tiered demo from last year, lest I whistle like a boiling steam kettle in rabid anticipation of a fully rounded full-length, which can't come too soon for this Oedipally ruffled minstrel. (Should this glorious fifteen minutes of old-school rock/metal veneration fail to fan ye flames, I commit to sport, however askew, a multicoloured beanie after shaving off opposite sides of my beard and fro, as I'm impressed enough to take such a bone headed gamble!)