WIDOW „On Fire”

Music: Old School Classic Metal
Country: USA
Website: http://www.myspace.com/cruzdelsurmusic
Duration: 43


Cool Songs: Re-animate Her, I'll Bury You Alive, Sinderella, The Preacher's Daughter

Kicking off your myspace website with a statement like ‘If you don’t like us, you don’t like metal!’ is not only an ambitious and downright ballsy move, but it is also one that could bring some grief. It is possibly said with tongue firmly planted, but still if you’re going to put the feelers out there, you better have the chops to back it up. With ‘On Fire’ I’m not exactly convinced that they’ve hit the mark, but gee do they try their hardest.

Widow is clearly a band who loves their metal; all props to them. I like their confidence and their wide eyed enthusiasm. ‘On Fire’ is littered with an authentic old school metal attitude and one that touches base with many ‘classic’ metal bands that have gone before them. This is no modern metal approach folks – we’re talking about an American metal acts take on the NWOBHM sound – Maiden, Saxon and Priest. Throw in a simply insatiable desire to bathe in the fret burning wizardry of Malmsteen, Murray and Smith and you’ve pretty much got the Widow sound right there.

Unfortunately, as much as ‘Widow’ have their hearts in the right place and the skilful guitar duo of Cristof and John E shred like no tomorrow, it has to be said that the ‘On Fire’ just hasn’t got the song writing to make this anything but a well conceived, yet thoroughly unremarkable metal album. Put this up against similar classic metal rooted acts like ‘Wolf’ and ‘Slough Feg’ and this just doesn’t make the grade. There are a couple of ripping head snapping moments like ‘Re-Animate Her’ and ‘Sinderella’ where the band brings it all together, but for the most part there just seems to be too much emphasis on writing their songs around lead work and solo driven patterns instead of memorable riffs and melodic choruses.

The other problem that I have with ‘Widow’ is the duelling vocals that are shared between front woman Lili and Christof. Lili opts for the clean melodic phrasing whilst Christof lays down a blackened like rasp, providing that somewhat forced ‘light & shade’ vocal effect. In this sense, there is a real ‘Lacuna Coil’ feel about Widow’s verse/chorus patterns, although ‘Widow’ certainly don’t embrace the Gothic overtones of Christina Scabbia’s mob. I’m not sure why Widow feels the need to employ this vocal by-play – maybe to satisfy the ‘aggressive’ metal edge of their sound – but it is possible that ‘On Fire’ would have been a better proposition with just Lili doing her thing. It’s a debatable point, but for me at least, I’m not completely sold on what they’ve done here.

Backed by a passable old school production that provides massive emphasis on the blazing lead work that continues unabated throughout, ‘On Fire’ is a right old romp down ‘classic metal’ lane. Just don’t expect it to change your world. It is an enjoyable listen and you can really hear the band throwing their soul into the material, but ultimately it runs out of steam at the half way mark and the lack of real song writing smarts hampers its overall memorability.

note: 6.7

Tracklist

An American Werewolf In Raleigh
The Preacher's Daughter
Here To Stay
Re-animate Her
Sinderella
Not Alone
Dead End
Misstery
Family Affair
I'll Bury You Alive