North Carolina’s Widow had a breakthrough with their last album ‘Life’s Blood’ and with subsequent touring around the globe, they enhanced their footprint on the traditional metal circuit. The great thing here though was that I just knew I was going to enjoy this album, and thankfully I can say I was correct!
Seriously though, not many bands pull off traditional metal influences with balanced melodies and harmonies like Widow do. From the opening tickler ‘Burning Star’ which is complemented by an excellent mix and production, ones fist is pumping very much in time with the awesome thick drum sound and my fellow commuters may have heard this tune also when it’s been cranked up in the car. The whole album has metal anthems, but there’s a real classy feature from a ballad which is ‘Time on Your Side’. The emotion, the feeling that’s conveyed, I tip my cap gents, that’s quite moving.
So if you move back to the trademark Widow anthems, you find floor fillers such as ‘Borrowed Time’ and ‘Another Time and Place’ slipping effortlessly from your brain to your mouth to sing along with, it’s quite catchy therefore the crisp but strong mix really helps you decipher the lyrics and the cool music. This is a different drummer for this release, but man, the sound is captured. That’s been a plus feature for me with this band, as a 3-piece, the sound is full and fills almost an arena the way it comes across.
Widow have stepped up their game but remained true to their previous heritage. Widow are a band I implore everyone to listen to and ‘Carved in Stone’ is one hell of an album, quite rightly putting Widow at the top of the tree for musical accomplishment. Let’s hope there’s some more live shows in the future.
(9.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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