Snowy Shaw – This Is Heavy Metal, Plain & Simple

Snowy Shaw
This Is Heavy Metal, Plain & Simple
Label: Self-release
Out: December 24^th, 2022
Playing time: 01:26:21

He has played with many bands, King Diamond, Therion, Dimmu Borgir or Sabaton, just to name a few. But he is also active as a solo artist. In the pandemic year 2021, he had the idea to produce a single every month and then release it as a complete album. He invited many well-known musicians for the recordings. However, the release was delayed by a year. Thus, the album did not appear until Christmas 2022. The digital version includes the twelve singles. In addition, CDs with fourteen and vinyl records with seventeen songs were released, partly in a different order.

This album shows a cross-section of Snowy Shaw’s musical life’s work. For example, “Black Blood (This Is Not A Love Song)” is an extremely thrashy song, bordering on Death Metal. Here, Björn Strid’s growls dominate the sound. The Melodic Power Metal of “The Heydays” then forms a strong contrast to this. Also, thanks to the voice of former Therion band mate Thomas Vikström. And later, guitar god Gus G. provides another highlight with his solo. And so it continues in a varied way, with classic 80s Heavy Metal (“We Are The Survivors”, “Of Hell And Fire”), rhythmic Power Metal (“Devil’s Child”), Melodic Hard Rock (“Tell Me, Tell Me”), ballads (“The End Of An Era”). “Gladiator” again offers Classic Metal. While “Guitarmageddon” sounds very hymn-like. The short interlude is a little ballad with acoustic guitars. On “Zero Fucks Given” you can hear another great guitarist in Jeff Loomis.

It is difficult to rate this album. It is not a normal album. Rather born out of necessity, in pandemic times. Consequently, there is no common thread running through the song writing. But it lives from its diversity and the star line-up of guest musicians. “This Is Heavy Metal, Plain & Simple” is not a must-buy. But as a testimony of a difficult time for musicians it is definitely recommendable. One drop of bitterness remains: all seventeen songs are unfortunately only available on vinyl. Bad luck for those who don’t have a record player. Digitally, you only get the twelve songs that Snowy Shaw released month by month in 2021.

Snowy Shaw – Black Blood (This Is Not A Love Song) Official Video: https://youtu.be/3jmINbN5-L0

Lineup:

Snowy Shaw

Track list:

• Black Blood (This is Not a Love song) feat: Björn Strid, Chris Amott 
• The Heydays feat: Gus G, Thomas Vikström
• We Are The Survivors feat: Marc Lopes, Olof Mörk & Alicia Grimoire
• Of Hell and Fire
• Devil’s Child* feat: Elli Berlin (Bonus)
• Tell Me, Tell Me feat: Erika
• Weekend Warriors feat: Ralf Gyllenhammar, Jocke Berg, Martin Westerstrand
• If I was King For A Day feat: Andy La Rocque & Hal Patino
• The End Of An Era feat: The All-star Choir
• Metallicus Tinnitus Satanicus (The Devil’s Orchestra) feat: Hank Shermann. Steve Sylvester, Chaq Mol 
• We Sold Our Souls To Rock n’ Roll, that is our Religion feat: The Necro Spititual Choir Of Corpus Christi
• Gladiator (feat: Dan Dark & Michael Moon) 
• Guitarmageddon feat: Bill Hudson, Rob Marcello, Ira Black, Stefan Lindholm, Thobbe Englund, Pär Hulkoff, Kelly Mclaunchlin, Kosta Papazoglou, Glen Drover and Chris Rörland
• The lost song (Bonus)
• We Are Dinosaurs feat: Denny Olson. (Bonus)
• Every Generation Needs A Youth Revolution feat: Mike Wead, Freya Sillrén (Bonus)
• Zero Fucks Given feat: Jeff Loomis (Bonus)