April 2025 - Featured Release - The Guardians Edition

How's it going, fellas, it turns out that I'm currently the sole person on the roster for The Guardians featured releases. Unfortunately, as The Guardians is by far my least listened clan, I don't think I would be able to ensure the quality level of the recommendations that I would like to aim for, simply because I don't engage with the music often enough to have something firmly on mind on a monthly basis. I'll have to work something out with Andi (perhaps a quarterly schedule would be appropriate), but, in the meantime, I've selected the latest full-length from the British heavy metal pioneers Angel Witch, 2019's "Angel of Light".

To tell you the truth, I was never the biggest fan of the band's highly regarded eponymous LP. It is very much the case of the usual born-too-late syndrome, as I struggle immensely with that record's leftover hard-rock tendencies, as well as the incredibly cheesy group vocals that have always ruined my enjoyment of the otherwise great title track. Therefore, I was very pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon their latest album some years ago, which I found to contain a tasty slab of fun & energetic heavy metal with some infectiously catchy melodies, if a touch overproduced (that is sadly very much to be expected in this day and age). The opener, "Don't Turn Your Back" in particular, has become somewhat of a staple for me - it's one of the songs I absolutely love to sing-along to while on the road (& Kev Heybourne sounds better than ever!). All in all, I think the record is worth checking out, if only as a nice subversion of the typical trend of metal bands descending into mediocrity later into their career. Let me know what you think & happy listening!

https://metal.academy/releases/13992

Nice one Karl. "Don't Turn Your Back" is a brilliantly catchy heavy metal tune.