Reviews Round-Up March 2025

• SEVEN SISTERS – ‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt.2’
• ERJA LYYTINEN – ‘Smell the Roses’
• ABRAXAS - ‘Shattered By A Terrible Prediction’
• BLACK & DAMNED – ‘Resurrection’

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For their follow-up to 2021’s ‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt.1’ London four-piece SEVEN SISTERS have basically halved the number of cuts on that album but kept roughly the same 40 minute running time. Dominated by the sprawling twenty-minute album closer ‘Andromeda Descending (A Fallen Star Rises)’, ‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt.2’ (Dissonance/Cherry Red, 28 March) is an intricate and adrenaline-charged album whose tracks ebb and flow on monstrous riffs and elaborate guitar runs. As an album it’s a definite coming of age for the band – Kyle McNeill, Graeme Farmer, Gaz Martin and Sammy Chrisou – whose creativity and musicianship is now second to none. This is, without doubt, a truly great album.

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Kyle MacNeill at Brofest 2020

Video clips:
‘Heart Of The Sun’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9SLm4Ef7-8
‘Solar Winds’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9BZEX-Bjlo

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ERJA LYYTINEN’s thirteenth studio album ‘Smell the Roses’ (Tuohi Records, 28 March) sees the Finnish singer / guitarist in a very comfortable place. Following on from 2023’s live album ‘Diamonds On The Road’, ‘Smell The Roses’ serves up 50 minutes of bluesy swagger, and unlike its studio predecessor, 2022’s multi-layered ‘Waiting For The Daylight’, ‘Smell The Roses’ is a much more direct, stripped down release. It’s pretty upbeat too, and varies the mood by swinging from the lively title track to the lengthy and introspective (and quite progressive) ‘Abyss’ which features some utterly delightful soloing.

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photo by Ville Juurikkala

Video clips:
‘The Ring’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPzaZUpYICI
‘Abyss’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Baey57G_-eo
‘Smell The Roses’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcF_rSnwgs

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‘Shattered By A Terrible Prediction’ (Golden Core, out now) is an interesting re-issue of two releases by ABRAXAS, a German band active as the ’80s became the ’90s. ‘Shattered...’ itself was a four-track EP released in 1989 and is a more straight-ahead metal offering; exciting, certainly, but nothing ground-breaking. However, by 1991 frontman Joachim Hittinger appears to have left, and with guitarist Oliver Minder, bassist Jan M?ller and drummer Heiko Burst joined by keyboard player Andreas Hittinger, guitarist Stephan Rohner and vocalist Chris Klauke Abraxas released a tape entitled ‘Signs’ which saw the band going in a much more progressive direction. Here’s where things really do gear up, with some lively time changes and interesting constructions – ‘Euphoria’ in particular is an extremely clever offering. The Cd adds an eight-track recording from 1994, but it looks like the band hit the buffers fairly early on, which, given the quality of the music here, is a great shame.
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Also from German come BLACK & DAMNED, a five-piece from the Stuttgart area. Conceived during the long months of lockdown the band appeared in 2021 with ‘Heavenly Creatures’ and are now back in the shops with their third album. ‘Resurrection’ (ROAR/RPM, 14 March) is a frenetic romp through ten heads-down metallic workouts, beautifully crafted and demonstrating a Judas Priest-style “exhibition of sheer precision”. There’s a lot going on here with the downbeat ‘Red Heavens’ showcasing a crushing, downbeat side of the band and counterpointing the likes of the more pacey ‘Searing Flames’ and ‘Reborn In Solitude’.

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Video clips:
‘Ruthless Wrath’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsIvL-pEk0Q
‘Bound By The Moon’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj9yy-Ulxa4
‘Red Heavens’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXN51CLYSl8