Owlbear, with advantage
Feather and Claw | artist: Owlbear — Owlbear gets right to it. This is bedroom poster metal (in the best possible way to think about such a description) and it fully holds its own against any of the scotch-taped poster bands of a previous era.
Proving that the galloping beat is the mightiest beat in all of Heavy Metal, Feather and Claw opens up in early-mid Maiden territory musically — with lyrics pulled maybe from more continental sources.
I rush towards destiny, my oath I cannot fail,
My word unwavering as weapons clash and arrows hail
The production lets the rawness through, the melodies keep everything moving along, and the solos bear the right amount of flash without being prodigious and precious. There is more than a hint of 90s European power metal in the second track, but the song itself somehow keeps from falling fully into that quicksand. Instead, there is something rougher going on here.
And that roughness just explodes in the brilliant third track "Crawl from the Carcass". I spent a lot of time in heavy metal bars in the late 80s and pre-Nevermind early 90s (mostly on account of lax underage drinking policies). And a song like "Crawl" is exactly the kind of thing that would have fired up the late night crowd ready to see Kix. I'm really glad to see this take on Trad Metal. So often, and indeed in Owlbear's oeuvre, the touchstones are NWOBHM and Germanic power metal. To hear such a celebration of late 80s Hair Metal is actually amazingly refreshing in the year two-thousand and twenty-five.
Other album highlights include the wonderful Electric Mistress intro of "Song of the Grey Witch", the groovy accented crunch of "Wild Shape" and it's sped up Priest-like chorus (you know the sort — with the long drawn out sustaining power chords at the start of each measure), the nice power ballad fake-out intro into the blazing "Devastation Be My Name" and the galloping thrash (small "T") of the post-chorus sections, and Katy Scary's masterful vocals throughout.
Up from the ashes power burning deep within my heart
Strength of fallen gods now courses through me
Indeed, Katy.
This album doesn't just build on the band's prior studio engagements — this feels like a significant move forward. And goddamn if it ain't fun. | 4 out of 5 stars.
