SHADOW WARRIOR : “Cyberblade” - Reviewed By Rocka Rolla Web Zine ! Check it out here at this link: http://rockarollazine.blogspot.com/2021/03/shadow-warrior-cyberblade-2020-ossuary.html
From eastern Poland, specifically from the city of Lublin, these heavy metal samurai warriors bring us their promising first album entitled "Cyberblade". The irruption of the band has been fulminant: founded in January 2019 by drummer Zdzisław Krzyżanowski together with guitarist Marcin Puszka, a few months later they published a single and the EP "Return Of The Shadow Warrior" and at the end of last year, with the lineup Completed by Anna Klos on vocals, Krzysztof Aftyka on guitar and Karol Zmaczyński on bass, they released their acclaimed debut, preceded by another pair of singles and an album recorded live in the studio.
Titles like Squadrons Of Steel, Headless Riders or Demon's Sword leave little room for second readings: as they define themselves, their style is “Pure, raw and classic heavy metal” anchored in the sound of the eighties with inevitable echoes of the first Warlocks and bands like their compatriots Crystal Viper.
The album begins with narrations in different languages as an intro to outline the concept of the album and starts with the dazzling main melody of the theme-title and that heir riffage of Running Wild accompanying the verses. Demolition Hammer blasts past us with its gritty riff, insurmountable bass line, and full-blast drums. Its bridge is marked by some fantastic broken tones and the chorus is once again simple but effective, melodic and catchy.
Bass and drums support the future ofIron Hawk Rising with the backing vocals replicating Anna's voice in the main verse that will scale several notes when repeated in the second round. At this point we can assure you that Klos, whose vocal tessitura shows a clean register between mid and high tones and ripped to aggressively attack the verses, is a fundamental piece in the band's machinery.
The omens of storm give way to I Am The Thunder with a playful riff and relentless bass notes, another result chorus and a central part where the four and the six strings are exchanged alone, staging their particular ketjutsu combat . Meanwhile, Squadrons Of SteelIt has a certain Motorheäd aftertaste, with a voice in the foreground above the chords and that great bass interruptus that precedes the arrival of the main verse.
The clatter of the hammer blows that forge Demon's Sword introduces us to a halftime of muscular guitars and dense cadence where the songs designed to be accompanied loudly merge into a good shared solo. Headless Riders' motorcycle acceleration features the band putting all the meat on the spit and Flight Of The Steel Samurai begins with a few short arpeggiated notes and takes us through Anna Klos's throat for different musical motifs to the epic chorus , while the final story acts as an outro with which the album concludes.
Starting from the premise that it is a first LP, we find ourselves before a great work, short in its duration and simple in its execution, but evocative and edifying for the ears of any warrior of the old metal guard.
Shadow Warrior's katanas look razor sharp and with “Cyberblade” they are ready to fight for metal without taking prisoners! - Rocka Rolla Web Zine
Shadow Warrior is the classic heavy metal attack in the vein of early Accept, Iron Maiden, Saxon and Warlock. The band was formed in 2019 and made their recording debut with 5-song EP “Return of the Shadow Warrior”, which lyrics were based directly on history and culture of Japan. The album, initially self-released by the band in limited 100 copies, turned out to be a hit and in 2 weeks span it was totally sold out. Soon afterwards the band started to gain attention of classic heavy metal record labels from all over the world – this yielded in reissue of their EP for Asian, South American and European markets, released by Spiritual Beast, Burning Leather and Heathen Tribes respectively on CD, vinyl and MC.
By early 2020 Shadow Warrior made contact with Japanese heavy metal legend, Metalucifer, which resulted in 7” vinyl single “Heavy Metal Typhoon”, which featured Metalucifer/Sabbat lead singer Gezolucifer on vocals and iconic metal collector, Neal Tanaka, on the album cover.
By mid-2020 the band finished recording of their full-length debut album, “Cyberblade”. The album, featuring 35 minutes of premiere material encapsuled in 8 songs, was recorded and mixed in HiGain Studio (Białystok, Poland) by Janusz Grabowski and Marcin Grygoruk. The album will be released on 18 th November 2020 by Spiritual Beast (CD) for Japanese market and by Ossuary Records (CD/MC/digital) for everywhere else. The album was preceded by the 7” vinyl single “I Am the Thunder”.
“Each song of the Shadow Warrior is filled with great, sharp riffs and memorable melodies, just the way traditional heavy metal is supposed to be!” - Heavy Metal Pages
“Many bands with a lot bigger experience can be envious of Shadow Warrior’s phenomenal start” - Metal Up! Magazine
“Shadow Warrior is pure and brutally honest heavy metal, which might soon stir the scene quite a bit!” - Burnn! Magazine
“The only negative here is the length of the album – it’s not long enough!” - Rubber Axe Web Zine
“Their debut is a very strong entry in the heavy metal world” - Deaf Forever
Line-up:
Anna Kłos – lead vocals
Marcin Puszka - guitar / backing vocal
Krzysztof “Chris” Aftyka - guitar / backing vocal
Karol Zmaczyński - bass / backing vocal
Zdzisław Krzyżanowski - drums
Band: Shadow Warrior
Album: „Cyberblade"
Country: Poland
Genre: Oldschool Heavy Metal
Label: Ossuary Records
Premiere: November 18th 2020
Follow the band at these links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShadowWarriorPL
Bandcamp: https://shadowwarrior.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowofthewarrior
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