BAND OF THE WEEK: Seven Sisters
Epic, progressive, storytelling heavy metal like they don't do it anymore! Or, well, Seven Sisters do.
Oh man, remember the good old days when each new heavy metal album felt like it would be a whole new world for you to explore and get lost in? I mean, even if you’re not old enough to have been there, you certainly know those records and those bands by now. And not to sound like the old fart screaming at clouds, but it does feel like that art of whimsical storytelling, an almost direct transfer of what the very best literature can do to you into music form, has faded somewhat with time. Obviously there’s still good examples, but not as many. And it’s not because I’m not a kid full of wonder anymore either - because when I do bump into one of those these days, I am that kid full of wonder still, inside.
My musical personality was actually born straight into that feeling - the second album I ever bought was Iron Maiden’s ‘Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son’ (and true to the almighty power of the “discovery album”, it’s still my favourite of theirs today), I was eleven years old, I had already seen those album covers in record shops before, and was a little terrified of them but also strangely fascinated. After finally gaining the courage (no pun intended, that song was still years away!) to get Manowar’s ‘Kings Of Metal’, Maiden had to be next, and man, did I obsess about that album. This was also the year when I started reading books in English, so I was also going through my first read of ‘Lord Of The Rings’ and I had recently random-bought a quirky little book called ‘Equal Rites’ by Terry Pratchett, also my introduction to something that would completely change my life around. Every time I listened to ‘Seventh Son…’ I felt the same thing I did when I cracked open those books, it was like unexplored new universes opening before me. As I grew and explored further music realms, I naturally did discover other artists that gave me that high, something that is not necessarily genre-specific, but for which heavy metal, the more classic kind, seems to be tailor-made, especially when joined with some prog tendencies. Psychotic Waltz is another long time favourite band, for instance. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since, getting great fixes now and then, but with sadly increasingly rarified results in the music front. And you know what? 2025 is still young, but we got one!
So, if that song, taken from new album ‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt.2’, released a few days ago, doesn’t make you feel anything, I won’t be cute and tell you to check your pulse or hand in your metal card or whatever, but I’m afraid you won’t really get why Seven Sisters are so important in today’s AI-ridden, algorithm-driven, shallow, fleeting artistic environment. What’s crucial, and necessary to get out of the way straight away, is that these guys are not trying to make it seem like it’s 1988 all over again. They’re a current band, they sound like one, and they have their own personality and vibe going. Of course, there are throwbacks and influences, you will hear strands of Iron Maiden, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Dream Theater, Helloween, Dragonforce even, but never deliberate copying or soulless nostalgia. It just means these dudes have been brought up on the same records that you (hopefully) and I have. They know the power of the twin guitars, of a proper heavy metal voice (Kyle McNeill has a superb performance here, perhaps his best so far), of melody, of employing your talents to serve a song. And that’s the feeling that shines through, of absolute love for the craft, of care and respect for the lineage they are extending. As well executed as the music (and production and mastering too - all of this sounds just right) is, wonderfully enough, the story, which obviously continues what started with 2021’s ‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt. 1’, and is a well crafted and exciting tale that both enriches and is elevated by the awesome music. A perfect pairing. This album concludes the narrative in a perfect way, even if with an unusual format - three more or less “regular” songs, ‘Astral Prophecies’ (8:17), the one you heard up there, ‘Solar Winds’ (04:24) and ‘Heart Of The Sun’ (05:12), three rousing, melodic, memorable heavy metal tunes to rival anything else the genre can come up with these days, an ascending path that leads to the top of the mountain, where the truly, genuinely epic twenty minutes of story-closing ‘Andromeda Descending (A Fallen Star Rises)’ await. As with all the best heavy metal epics, ‘Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ and its likes, it doesn’t need to be an overbloated, ultra-orchestrated anomaly to feel like, as the image I used before from when I was a kid, a whole universe opening before you. It just needs to be a finely crafted, longer song, that reflects what’s going on in the story without trying so hard or sounding like another band. That’s maturity right there, something which Seven Sisters seem to have plenty to throw about. All power to them, and we’re looking forward to the next universe they will create for us to get lost in. In the meantime, check out the great chat we had with them below. I’ll just go and give ‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt.2’ another spin while you do. Again. And again.
‘Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt. 2’ is out now on Dissonance Productions.
You can find Seven Sisters on Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook and Spotify.
“You need the odd Spinal Tap moment to figure out how to do things properly.”
- Gareth Martin
So you’ve gone past that first big milestone of your tenth anniversary and you’re already putting out your fourth full-length album – how does it feel, to maybe look back a bit and consider your trajectory so far? Do you actually feel like an “established” band, is your approach towards Seven Sisters different than it was before?
Gareth Martin (bass guitar): Our bank balances definitely wouldn’t say that we were an established band, but we’ve absolutely accomplished a lot more in ten years than we ever imagined we could. To still be doing this after a decade at all is pretty insane to be honest. When we started out, we didn’t have a complete line-up and had no plans to play live. We were just writing songs that we enjoyed, and stuck them up online on the off-chance anybody else liked them to. So to be here all these years later with four full-length records and having played hundreds of shows all over the world is really cool! There was a slightly longer gap between the third and fourth albums than any of the others, but four records in ten years in today’s music industry is pretty good going for sure. We’re definitely much more confident in what we’re doing these days, but I think any band would be after ten years of pretty relentless touring and a steady schedule of releases. I’m not sure if our approach has changed all that much aside from our songwriting gradually getting more progressive and experimental, but that’s a by-product of all the experiences we’ve had over the last ten years.
Since it is a “Part 2”, even if it’s coming out a little under four years after Part 1, was the writing of this new record any different, did you feel that you were already starting from a set place having nailed Part 1? Do you think that played some sort of part in the final outcome?
Gareth: Kyle had the concept of the narrative and the lyrics pretty well fleshed out before we started on Part I, so I think we had a sense of where we were going lyrically from the get-go with the second record. Musically, there weren’t any unused ideas left over from Part I, so that all needed to be written specifically for Part II. The first ‘Shadow…’ album was a slight musical departure from our first two records, but as this record was a continuation of the previous one that wasn’t really a consideration this time. I think once we started writing for it, things came together pretty organically. We’re really pleased with how it turned out, and despite the fact they were written several years apart the two albums flow into one another really nicely if you listen to them both back-to-back.
Was that musical departure a consequence of your method of writing and developing the songs being any different to what you had done before? Do you think you settled on a comfortable way of working within the band by now?
Gareth: The vast majority of both ‘Shadow…’ albums was written by Kyle, other than the odd riff or line of lyrics here and there. He’ll demo the songs to a fairly decent standard, and then the rest of us come in and add our own little touches and flourishes. We did that for both records. The biggest difference with Part II is that we didn’t actually have a chance to rehearse the songs as a band before going into the studio, so all those little intricacies were literally added to the songs as we recorded them. It was actually quite exciting to see some parts take on a new life right before our eyes in the studio. It was pretty cool being able to experiment and try out different ideas in real-time, rather than the songs all being set in stone before going in to record them.
Of course, one has to mention that big twenty minute climax that is the last song! Had you already decided to end this particular saga with a song of these characteristics, did you feel you needed an “epic” to properly conclude the tale?
Gareth: It's actually something we’d been talking about doing for a few albums now, without getting round to actually doing it. We always loved the idea of having a whole side of vinyl just being the one track. Sort of like Rush’s ‘2112’ but in reverse, with the really epic track being on the B-side of the album. It just seemed appropriate to save it for the closer of a two-part concept album, and we pretty much agreed after Part I came out that that was how we were going to finish it. It’s obviously one thing to talk about doing it, but it’s quite an undertaking to actually bring it to life. The approach we took was to write it in several more bitesized chunks. So it’s almost five separate but related tracks which we then pieced together later. I think that way you also avoid over-repeating certain sections as well. Whilst it’s twenty minutes long, we don’t keep coming back and repeating the same chorus, and there isn’t like an extended guitar solo back and forth or anything like that. You can really hear five distinct movements within the song. I think it ended up working out really well approaching it that way, as it all flows really nicely and is varied enough that it’s hopefully still a really interesting listen despite its length,
That’s not to take away anything from the first three songs on the album which are absolute bangers. Your photos from the recording at Signal House seem actually quite relaxed and, well, happy. I guess you knew you had something special in your hands, maybe that helped?
Gareth: Yeah we had a really nice time at Signal House with Tim! It was actually the first time we’d done an album where we were all in the studio at the same time, so it was quite a fun experience. We slept there too, and cooked together every night and stuff like that. So whilst it was a lot of hard work, it was cool just to get to hang out together whilst working on the record. Of course it didn’t hurt that the studio was on a farm and had an on-site brewery either! Kyle then finished things up at his home studio later, but the bulk of what you hear on the record was recorded whilst we were all there together. We definitely felt we had a strong record on our hands before we went in to the studio, but then you shouldn’t really be going into the studio until you’re happy with the material anyway. We certainly feel like we’ve made a good record, and even if nobody else likes it we had a fun time making it either way.
How do you look at your career so far, and how do you feel right now after releasing an album like this and completing a two-part saga? Have you thought of the next steps, or are you at a blank page moment right now?
Gareth: I think we’re definitely satisfied with where we are at the moment. As I said earlier, we’ve already accomplished infinitely more than we set out to or really even thought was possible. There’s definitely been a few mis-steps along the way, but personally I wouldn’t change any of them as they were all learning experiences and we wouldn’t have got to where we are today without making mistakes and then learning from them. You need the odd Spinal Tap moment to figure out how to do things properly. As for next steps, we’re just looking forward to getting out on the road and playing the new material live. We’re not really thinking too far beyond that at the moment. We’ve got some really exciting shows coming up, including playing Wacken this summer which we’re very excited about. Hopefully a few more cool opportunities like that might come our way once the album is out and people have had a chance to listen to it. We haven’t talked too much about how to follow this record up just yet, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it when we’re all packed into a van driving eighteen hours or something daft to get to the next show!
Thank you to Gareth and to Dan Tobin for the interview
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