Track Premiere: Shadows – Night Stalker

“Nightstalker,” the opening track off the forthcoming Out For Blood, emerges from a twilight mist. The rustle of wind in the trees and the cawing of crows set the stage. The soft guitar strums a melodic accompaniment to the nightside ambience. As soon as the full band kicks in, the stage lights up–and what a stage indeed! It’s instantly clear from the rich reverb in the drums and the hard pounding rhythm that Shadows are crafting metal with its heart set on the limelight era.

Rich vocal harmonies shift between the dramatics of King Diamond and Alice Cooper on the verses and the cool mysticism of Blue Öyster Cult on the chorus–a comparison that is given further credence when the ectoplasmic synths irradiate with haunting melodicism. The playful snarl of the guitar begs to be played on a polka dotted Flying V: Whether it’s laying down licks or swooping in to the spotlight for a bewitching solo, the Rhodes element integrates perfectly onto the full stage production Shadows have crafted. It’s not just the tone or the flashy bits–its the way in which the the riff feels like the heartbeat of the song, expanding and contracting as it pumps the blood of inspiration to the other organs (pun, as always, intended).

The greatest strength of the song–and this is the case with most of the record–is in its catchiness. Littered with hooks, Out For Blood truly captures the magic of the era it is striving for by unabashedly writing songs fit for 80’s hard rock radio play that still capture a spark in those with a curiosity for the forbidden and macabre.

“Nightstalker” provides but a taste of what lies beyond. On Out For Blood, Shadows main man John Shades (aka Cris Profaner of Chilean thrash royalty Apostasy) crafts a loving letter that feels born of an era of backmasking conspiracies, cult accusations, Satanic Panic, and, most importantly, writing damn good heavy metal songs. There’s an innocence wrapped in the cloak of Shadows, a longing for an era when darkness felt like the fantastical.

When was the last time you felt afraid to look under the bed?

Out For Blood is available for preorder via the Sentient Ruin website and the Sentient Ruin Bandcamp.