Seven Sisters Star Pt. 2

I really like Seven Sisters, but it seems that like most newer metal bands and albums, I rarely go back an revisit them. I'll be really stoked on a record and listen to it a lot during its release year, but then once we turn that corner into January, its like my brain resets and I forget about it. Because of this, you'd think that I could live a life of contentment and spend the rest of my life listening to music that I already own... but no, I'm obsessed with finding and listening to something new... so of course I needed the new Seven Sisters album even though I own three other full length albums by the band and haven't listened to any of them more than ten times. This is my curse.

Seven Sisters is one of the only newer metal bands that both Jeff and I see eye to eye on. He tends to avoid anything that didn't originate in the 70's or 80's, but Seven Sisters has such a great old school New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sound, that even he can't ignore them. While I wasn't sure that I was going to pay any attention to the band's newest album, Shadow Of A Fallen Star, Pt 2, once Jeff mentioned that he'd ordered the colored vinyl, I had to jump in and make sure that I got my hands on one too.

I was a bit intimidated when the record arrived and I realized that there are only 4 songs here, and the last song, Andromeda Descending, clocks in over 20 minutes. I thought that it might get a bit dull with some slow atmospheric bits or some widdly guitar wanking, but surprisingly this entire record is just great straight forward metal. Seven Sisters still feel like they were lifted right out of the NWOBHM movement in the early 80's and I'm here for it.

Once again, the Seven Sisters vinyl looks so good.

Seven Sisters Of A Fallen Star

Seven Sisters caught my attention at the end of 2015 with their fantastic debut 7 inch, Lost In Time. That record, along with The Warden demo from the year before, blew me away with their old school New Wave Of British Heavy Metal style and I was looking forward to big things from the band. Their self titled album from 2016 was good, but it didn't really stick with me, and as time moved forward I kind of forgot all about it. I was really starting to focus more on newer hardcore bands around that time, and when the band released The Cauldron And The Cross in 2018, I barely gave it any attention. Yet, when I started to hear talk about a new Seven Sisters album in 2021, I figured that I'd check it out.

Even though Seven Sisters had cooled off a bit for me, as soon as I heard the first preview song from the new record, Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt 1, my interest was burning again and I jumped in to place an order for the vinyl. That was July of 2021... the vinyl finally arrived over a year later in the summer of 2022. It was a long fucking preorder. While I tend to not really listen to an album until the vinyl arrives, this wait was ridiculous, and I had to jump into Spotify to give it a few spins. This is a really solid traditional metal record, and easily would have made my Top 10 list for last year... but the blog rules state that if you can't get the vinyl out during the release year, it doesn't count in the ranking. Sorry, Seven Sisters. You missed it.

This colored vinyl was listed as "marbled green", but it is obviously blue. Really a great looking record that matches the cover art perfectly.

My record came with a signed postcard, which was a nice addition to the package. Great stuff.

Echoes Of A Distant Time

It has been five years since I was first introduced to Seven Sisters. At the time they only had a 7 inch and a demo out, and that shit blew my mind. Those songs reminded me so much of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and I absolutely loved it.

When it was originally released, The Warden demo was only available on cassette or by download on bandcamp. Earlier this year those songs were bundled with the two songs from the 7 inch and finally pressed to vinyl with the Echoes Of A Distant Time comp for the band. I don't know what my problem was, but I paid no attention to the record when it was available to buy. Thankfully, my friend Jeff had my back and he surprised me with a copy.

This record was a nice reminder of how much I enjoyed this band. Perfect timing as well as it looks like they have a new album due out later this year. I may have to jump on preordering that one.

Haunting Of Seven Sisters

Haunt have been very productive since coming onto the metal scene. They released their debut EP, Luminous Eyes in 2017, and then followed it up with a new album, Burst Into Flame, in 2018...and when they released two more records in 2019, I was feeling overwhelmed with the number of Haunt releases, and I just ignored both of them. However, when I saw they released a couple of split 7 inches this year as well, I figured that I'd jump on at least of them.

Haunt play a traditional metal style, and while I might have been burned out on the band, this song is so good that it makes me wonder if I made a mistake in ignoring their two records that they released this year. Damn it. Now I'm going to have to go check them out.

The main reason that I picked up this split 7 inch was to check out the Seven Sisters song. I didn't really spend much time with their album from 2018, and I never even grabbed it on vinyl, but I was still very interested to hear what they had to offer on this split with Haunt. This is such a fun split 7 inch, that I'm not regretting no picking up the split that Haunt did with Fortress as well.

Seven Sisters

Earlier this year, my friend Jeff turned me on to Seven Sisters. It is pretty rare for Jeff to turn me on to a Metal band that I'd never heard before...especially one this good. Man, what a great find. I quickly grabbed their debut 7 inch, and then paid to download the demo from bandcamp...no doubt, I was loving this band.

I didn't really expect to hear from Seven Sisters again. I figured they were too good to be true, and after dropping those six amazing NWOBHM influenced songs, I thought they might disappear forever. Thankfully, that was not the case, and they keep things rolling with a full length release.

Let me list the reasons why Seven Sisters rule.

1. They absolutely nail that New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sound. Seven Sisters sound like they could share a bill with Angel Witch and Jaguar back in the early 80's.

2. They didn't wait a couple of years before following up each release, like most bands these days. Demo in 2014. EP in 2015. Full length LP in 2016. I can respect that.

3. They didn't recycle any songs from their past releases to fill out the album. It is always a disappointment when a band will pad their first album with songs that they had previously recorded. Eight new songs with this record and no filler. God damn right.

150 pressed on blue vinyl for the first pressing.

NWOBHM 2015

Honest, I was going to take a break from buying records for the start of 2016. I've got some serious bills piling up with the Christmas holiday, and some costly car repairs...and I needed to slow things down. When I had an email from a friend, telling me about Seven Sisters, I justified it as "it's only one 7 inch".

I honestly wasn't expecting much on the recommendation, but I figured I'd check them out just the same. Holy shit, what an awesome surprise! Seven Sisters are out of London, and are influenced by the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal that was happening in their country 35 years earlier. They carve their sounds from the influence of Angel Witch, Jaguar, and Satan...and had they been around in the early 80's, I'm sure they would have crashed and burned just like all the legendary from that time period.

This band impressed me so much that I paid for, and downloaded, the digital files from their 2014 demo, The Warden. As someone that absolutely despises paying for digital music files, it says something about how impressed I was by this band.