With their 2017 debut release, US metal titans War Cloud championed a very old fashioned style of music. In tracks like ‘Red Witch’, their debt to the roots of Black Sabbath seemed obvious, while in faster paced material it was easy to trace influence directly back to ‘Stained Class’ era Judas Priest. What the record lacked in originality, it made up for with musical chops and a lot of enthusiasm. 2019’s ‘State of Shock’ gave the world more of the same, but cranked up the energy. By chucking in the odd riff borrowed from Diamond Head and Kiss, the band mined classic rock’s rich past a little further with some very retro results. Understandably, by this point, those who liked War Cloud seemed to really love them.
Although a global pandemic ground the world to a halt in 2020 and put an end to live gigs for the foreseeable future, War Cloud maintained their presence with a pair of releases. ‘The Earhammer Sessions’ presented choice cuts replayed live in the studio and, although a strong career overview, didn’t really provide much of an alternative to the original recordings, while ‘Chain Gang’ – a two song stop-gap EP – gave fans something more to enjoy while the band considered their next move.
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