Sinbreed - Shadows

Published March 25 2014

*=Staff's pick	Bleed Shadows Call To Arms* Reborn* Leaving The Road Far Too Long Black Death Standing Tall London Moon Broken Wings

Genre	Power Metal	Herbie Langhans	Vocals
Tracks	10	Flo Laurin	Guitar
Running time	50 Min.	Marcus Siepen	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Alexander Schulz	Bass
Release	28 March 2014	Frederik Ehmke	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboard
Producer	Marcus Teske
Similar artists	---

Four years past the band's debut, When Worlds Collide, the Germans have gathered to create a new piece of music. This time with Blind Guardian's Marcus Siepen added to complete the lineup with two guitar players. The boys are no rookies or strangers to the scene and most of them have a pretty extensive repertoire to fall back on, even if they haven't reached strong success with their material before, Siepen naturally excluded.

Shadows is an overall explosive performance, as the songs whip and pound one by one almost all throughout the fifty minutes. There's not much variation as a whole, but it definitely includes slower and heavier parts and plays that break the otherwise fast and fiery image. Within these defined frames, the band extracts several nice and captivating plays and I find it easy to fall into a rather avid state when I listen to the ongoing intensity and to the solos that this music delivers.

The singer Herbie Langhans' overall hoarse and untamed voice is a significant element to this experience and his performance functions as a contrast to all the high-pitched vocalists that's been present in this type of powerful music throughout the times. A speedy drum play boosts the songs to a near extreme level of power metal and tearing riffs rip like lightning bolts through the air to make my head bang rapidly.

It's not overly fast, but indeed they do their best to keep up an impulsive pace at large. I find it interesting and I think it reflects a fresh wind in a somewhat struggling type of metal. The band has set a solid target and they evidently don't look for ongoing new trends to focus on. Instead they offer a crushing product without giving a shit about what's in or what's out in the metal world.