On their 2022 long player ‘Bitter Soul’, Finnish metallers Highway Queen very much flew the flag for a traditional approach. The album’s eight songs drew influence from a mid 80s Iron Maiden, with galloping riffs and twin lead guitars, from Michael Schenker via a very European sense of bombast, and a couple of Scandinavian hard rock rock acts from more recent times, which certainly helped their shamelessly old fashioned sound retain a pleasing sense of melody. Against their often familiar sounding riffs, vocalist Virpi Kääriäinen shared a strong vocal, and despite sometimes sounding a little buried within the band’s studio arrangements – at least on the faster numbers, the Whitesnake-esque title cut allowed for more clarity – it was obvious she had the kind of talent that would carry itself well in the live setting.
Tag Archives: metal
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #118
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past couple of weeks. This time out, we welcome back an indie hero with a superb solo venture, celebrate some big, modern pop from a rather prolific artist, take in a couple of metal tracks and even make time for some classic sounding yacht rock. As always, we hope you like what you hear.
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RISE OF THE WOOD – Discharge
In the summer of 2023, Dutch metal band Rise of The Wood released the ‘Sleep’ EP, an excellent three tracker that signified their long overdue return, but also a rebirth. Their first new music in six years, ‘Sleep’ was also the first Rise release to feature vocalist Leo Gstrein. His confident tones immediately outshone any of the work on the band’s 2017 debut and the music sounded much better all round. This suggested that band’s decision to take time out to regroup had been more than beneficial.
MURDERESS – Time To Kill EP
Brazilian death metallers Murderess really pack a punch on their debut EP ‘Time To Kill’. In a little over thirteen minutes, the band run the full gamut of extreme metal, ranging from intensive thrash riffs crossed with a melodic death core, all the way through to a purer death sound that celebrates the genre’s less than compromising origins. The female dominated band attack from all fronts, and manage to fit a great breadth of noise into a pleasingly short assault, ensuring this release is a superb introduction to their world of brutality.
DECREPIT YOUTHS – Love Psycho Kill Machine EP
When it comes to creating crossover sounds, Newcastle’s Decrepit Youths don’t mess around. The three tracks that make up their ‘Love Psycho Kill Machine’ EP take in influences from metal, hardcore, darkwave and industrial, only to spit everything back as an angry, but very distinctive noise; one that feels very assured for a band that’s still relatively new at the time of this release.