VELVET THUNDER

Slowburn is a traditional heavy metal band from Spain and was formed in 2015 by the thrash metal band Rancor bassist Jorge Serrano (aka Serra). He brought in fellow Rancor member Jorge Sáez on drums, lead guitarist Óscar Hernández from Motociclón and the Ariete singer David M. Romeral and together they recorded a couple of demos.

They began live work when the Roar guitarist Mario Cano joined the band and it was then during recording of this debut album that Romeral left the band and was replaced by Metal Legion vocalist JC Warrior. I guess there can be few Spanish metal bands that have not contributed in one form of another to the formation of Slowburn! The finally completed album came out early in 2020 and is an old school metal album with influences from Dio, Iron Maiden, Priest, Mercyful Fate and a smattering of AC/DC. The guitars work of Hernández and Cano drives much of the sound of the band as they lay down riff after riff and lots of guitar runs that thrill and show that they are most talented musicians.

The album has nine tracks and each with a running time of around 5-minutes so there are no long, extended workouts just short and sharp metal songs with the usual vocal, chorus guitar break format. The singer, JC Warrior, performs in English which is relatively accent free and gives a most capable performance being the typical hard hitting and rather strident vocal expected from old school metal. He isn’t Bruce Dickinson but then again, who is? However, his style and delivery perfectly suits the hard and incessant rock that the band revels in.

This is a confident start from this new Spanish band and is a good starting platform for them to build a strong base upon.