TOWER
“Shock To The System”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

TOWER are a heavy metal band from the USA formed in 2015, releasing their self titled debut album in 2016. The four song E.P. ‘Tomorrow & Yesterday’ emerged in 2019, with the bands sophomore album ‘Shock To The System’ a 2021 release.

And what a shock to the system it is! ‘Cause for some reason – God knows why – when I reviewed the bands E.P. two years ago, I was led to believe TOWER were a hard rock band. Yet their E.P. was an energetic meld of hard rock and heavy metal. And as for the new album, well fuck me it’s all about the metal – you can forget about the rock!

‘Shock To The System’ is ten songs and forty minutes of high energy heavy metal, with the attitude of punk and the brash swagger of bands such as Motorhead. The album screams into life with the blistering ‘Blood Moon’ – fast paced and loaded with aggression! TOWER have hit the ground running, and hit it very hard. What an absolutely stunning way to open the new album! Lead singer Sarabeth Linden has such a powerful voice – there’s grit, aggression, and menace in abundance. Moving on with ‘Prince Of Darkness’, the band slow the pace to a sinister Black Sabbath doom style, with Sarabeth’s vocal performance phenomenally powerful. A change of pace later on, sees ‘Prince Of Darkness’ gallop furiously to a finish. And the pace continues with the fiery ‘Metatron’ – hitting harder than a thousand wrecking balls and searing through the atmosphere with immense force. And did I mention that ‘Metatron’ is an instrumental? No! Well it is, and an intense one at that.

Traditional heavy metal comes rising to the surface, with the incredible “foot on the monitor” galloper ‘Running Out Of Time’. The pace and energy of ‘Running Out Of Time’ is relentless, with the head bangers of the world going mental for this one. What an absolute gem! Introducing a much more hard rock and melodic feel, ‘Lay Down The Law’ comes to life like an arena rock anthem whipping the crowd into a frenzy of anticipation – before bursting into life with a rampant gallop. TOWER mixing the styles of metal and rock to great effect. ‘Hired Gun’ is a high velocity romp, full of raucous riffs and pedal to the metal rhythms. The fastest song heard so far, ‘Hired Gun’ is a blistering gallop of eighties inspired metal with a huge dollop of attitude. And the attitude doesn’t end there either – ‘The Black Rose’ storming on with just as much attitude as the previous song, if not more! The pace, power and oomph of ‘The Black Rose’ is sky high, the head bang ability phenomenal, and TOWER have once again given the worlds die hard head bangers another reason to go absolutely mental.

‘On The Line’ displays the traditional heavy metal gallop that British legends Iron Maiden brought to the fore with their classic song ‘Run To The Hills’ (from their 1982 chart topping album ‘The Number Of The Beast’). Throughout this album TOWER have run the gauntlet of heavy metal, incorporating many of its greatest elements, and delivering some bloody crackers – with the melodious ‘On The Line’ one of the albums best. With its title of ‘In Dreams’ suggesting a visit to ballad country, you’re all in for a disappointment. ‘Cause ‘In Dreams’ is a high energy, high velocity rampage, with some amazing melodic melodies – the band showing their prowess at melding heavy metal, heavy rock, and hard rock…over an incredible seven minutes! Yes sports fans, seven minutes – making ‘In Dreams’ the longest song on offer by the proverbial country mile. Bringing the album to a close is the explosive ‘Powder Keg’ – displaying as much aggression, attitude and pace as ‘Shock To The System’ began with. The swaggering intensity throughout the album has been unrelenting and unforgiving, TOWER delivering a highly addictive album of heavy metal.

Overall, a fast paced and furious gallop of traditional heavy metal, loaded with high levels of energy and an insane amount of head bang ability.

TRACKLIST

Blood Moon
Prince Of Darkness
Metatron
Running Out Of Time
Lay Down The Law
Hired Gun
The Black Rose
On The Line
In Dreams
Powder Keg

https://towernyc.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/TOWERnyc/

This review is the property of Iron Mathew and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have both of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities

---