VELVET THUNDER

Another new day brings a (relatively) new name to the fore in thrilling genre of hard rock/progressive metal with Slovenia’s SkyEye releasing their most excellent second album Soldiers Of Light. They are yet another new name to me having formed in 2014 with guitarist Grega Stalowsky, bassist Primož Lovšin and singer Jan Leščanec with the line-up being completed in 2016 with the addition of second guitarist Marko Kavčnik and drummer Jurij Nograšek. They released their Run For Your Life EP in 2017 with the album debut, Digital God, following at the end of 2018 and now we have Soldiers Of Light which is going to knock you for dead.

Now, the boys in this band must have been listening to a lot of British heavy metal because fans of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Saxon are going to love this as this is very much a homage to all the old school metal bands you can mention then add a bit of Accept, Helloween and Scorpions and all bases are covered. The singer Jan Leščanec is truly amazing with his voice that is a composite of Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson with the same incredible power and range that they have all lyrics are delivered in perfect and totally confident English. This man can sing and then some! All you need to then add is twin guitarists and you are in metal heaven with Grega Stalowsky and Marko Kavčnik combining perfectly and calling to mind Downing/Tipton (apologies to Richie Faulkner) and Murray/Smith in their prime. All this is then backed by the explosive pairing of Primož Lovšin and Jurij Nograšek and they truly add a cataclysmic frame for the band to assault your senses.

It is actually amazing that SkyEye has developed such an earth shattering approach in such a short period of time with songs that are so mature and their skill levels are off the scale. Take the explosive (pun intended) Detonate which sounds as though it belongs on Painkiller and Eternal Starlight is reminiscent of Maiden at their best. Pride of place must go to the album closing Chernobyl which is off the scale and is sure to become a set closer for them for many years to come and I can just see those lighters held aloft for this emotional song about events close to all of our hearts.

This is a band at the start of their career and rest assured that it is going to be a long and profitable one as this is a band that is the real deal with the talent, ability and song writing skills to go all the way. Get this album as it is an absolute stunner.