THE BEAST

Shadow Kingdom Records  announces the signing of  Pounder . The first fruit of this union shall be the band's highly anticipated second album,  Breaking the World , later this autumn on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

It was but early 2019 when  Pounder  dropped their proud 'n' powerful debut album,  Uncivilized . Sure, the band had a debut single and demo in 2017, early on in their career, which were teasingly trumped by the  Faster Than Fire  7" from  Shadow Kingdom  during the summer of 2018, but  Uncivilized  truly put the band on the international metal map and made ears stand to attention. Despite their collective pedigree,  Pounder 's stock-in-trade showed itself as a seemingly effortless, unselfconscious conglomeration of classic metal styles - from a firm foundation of NWOBHM on to hints of early '80s speed metal, Sunset Strip flash, and AOR accessibility. No one song on  Uncivilized  was exactly like the other, and yet they all sounded like the same band, and awesomely so. So many anthems, so many metal moments the power-trio sent out into the world for 'heads the world over to commit to memory and mark their lives: simply put,  Pounder  made it look easy, and FUN.

Wasting no time keeping that envious momentum going,  Pounder  return a year later with all guns blazing on  Breaking the World . Leaner, meaner, and all-too-accurately titled,  Breaking the World  sees the band - vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey, bassist Alejandro Corredor, and lead guitarist Tom Draper - getting both heavier and more anthemic, more American in their metal but also more wide-ranging in their reach. Comprising seven songs in a satisfyingly compact 37 minutes,  Breaking the World  keeps the energy flowing freely across these more concertedly epic songs, but not once is there a feeling of bloat or padding out lengths just for the hell of it; these songs charge, HARD, and are painted with solos of a godly nature and all sorts of tasteful twists. Similarly, the hooks literally HOOK you in - we dare you to get the likes of "Never Forever" or the Manowarring title track outta your head...won't happen, no way!

Above all, just like  Uncivilized  before it,  Breaking the World  reaffirms what's so invigorating and life-affirming about the art of HEAVY METAL.  "We won't live forever / we just get one chance / so let's do it right,"  Harvey sagely sings in the album's opening moments. And in this state of the world right now, more than ever do we need  Pounder  to break it and build it back up again. "Give Me Rock"? You shall have it!

Release date, cover art, tracklisting, and preorder info for  Breaking the World  to be announced shortly.