VELVET THUNDER

Withering Scorn is a new band put together by a stellar team of musicians with this debut album being a real monster hard rock album of gargantuan proportions that is quite simply going to blow metalheads away! The musicians involved all have credentials of the highest order and their combination has resulted in a spectacular hard rock album that will surely appeal to all rock fans as it has its roots firmly grounded in the 1970s when the metal gods strode the earth and also draws on inspirations right through to today’s new breed of rock bands. The musicians involved are guitarist Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth, King Diamond), drummer Shawn Drover (Act Of Defiance, ex-Megadeth), bassist Joe DiBiase (ex-Fates Warning) and vocalist Henning Basse (ex-Metalium, Firewind) and if that line-up doesn’t excite then there is no hope left in the metal universe.

The idea of the project came about in 2020 when the Drover brothers got together again having decided to reprise their partnership having already played together in Megadeth and Eidolon and they really could not have picked any better than the powerful and uncompromising DiBiase on bass and he has made a formidable pairing with the stupendous drumming of Shawn Drover with brother Glen playing guitar that is off the scale with his huge, monumental riffs and searing guitar breaks. It takes an epic voice to give life to such a beast and Henning Basse is the perfect air raid siren to give life to set of songs that are just so soaring, direct and simply incendiary that they must surely break strategic arms limitations treaties.

The sound is evocative of Painkiller-era Judas Priest with elements of Cage, Jag Panzer and, by association, The Three Tremors being detected and will probably be as heavy a hard rock album as you have listened to in a number of years. Prophets Of Demise starts the proceedings in truly cataclysmic fashion and the power levels never drop throughout the 41-minutes of metal magic that Withering Scorn serve up making this a rock album that you will never tire of, a future classic and one that you will return to again and again. The album closes with the epic and awe-inspiring Eternal Screams which thrills to the core and ensures that you will hope, pray and beg for a follow-up release. It can be very easy for established musicians to simply go through the motions and create a rock album almost by numbers but that is not the case here as they show a zest for life and there is real passion throughout the record.

Quite simply, this is a must have album and one that most definitely needs cranking up to 11.