Formed in 2013 and taking their name from an area of North London, Seven Sisters soon created waves with a solid demo (2014’s The Warden) and since then have set the metal world alight with a steady stream of releases. Their lyrical bent (a heady mix of Arthurian legend and sci-fi) lends itself well to the grandiose and that’s exactly what their latest long player serves up. Concluding the saga began in 2021, Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt. 2 is a concept album of the highest order and is sure to send Seven Sisters’ star shooting towards the stratosphere.
Sometimes conceptual albums can be too clever for their own good; often artists can get so lost within the tale that they include sections for no other reason than to move the story forwards. Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt. 2 navigates that problem by making its concept loose enough for the listener to infer their own meaning but tight enough to guide us through the storyline arc. This makes for a more collaborative experience but more importantly, it allows for any of these songs to be plucked from the album and enjoyed individually. Case in point being opening track ‘Astral Prophecies’, you don’t need to be familiar with with Pt.1 to get sucked into this second instalment, in fact, this is like a new beginning as ethereal guitars welcome you to their world. It’s poetry without words, a soothing introduction which means that when the metal hits, it hits hard. Introducing motifs and patterns that will appear throughout and thread the album together, ‘Astral Prophecies’ evidences a powerful brand of metal that brings to mind Dragonforce at their most vivacious and experimental.
A rebel-rousing anthem (the kind you wish Iron Maiden would still write), ‘Heart Of The Sun’ encapsulates all that’s good about heavy metal, it’s a foot-on-the-monitor, horns-held-high anthem that sweeps the listener along on winds of effervescence in a way that only good metal can. It’s all very air guitar-inducing and contains the kind of frenetic fretboard action that could continue for perpetuity and never bore. Vocalist (and guitarist) Kyle McNeill has a touch of Midge Ure to his voice (which, of course, is a good thing) and adds an air of authority to proceedings and, with the warm and rich production providing the perfect canvas, finds the band painting their sound with bold strokes. With both parts of Shadow Of A Fallen Star containing the same personnel (the first time in their career that two albums have the same line-up), there is not only a continuity between the two records, but also a chemistry inside the band which means the songs (and in turn the album) flow smoothly.
The album’s pièce de résistance arrives in the shape of closer ‘Andromeda Descending (A Fallen Star Rises)’, a truly epic track with which to conclude an epic story. Clocking in at over twenty minutes, it is progressive in its truest definition, a song of many suites, it revolves and evolves, shapeshifts and appearing in new form, taking the listener on an amazing journey, lifting us up on feathered wings before crashing down to earth with the heaviest of riffs. It’s very cinematic and evocative and implants strong images in the mind’s eye whilst the startling sonic shifts constantly reposition us before, finally, the eternal motif returns to bookend both Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 of Shadow Of A Fallen Star.
This album has set the bar exceptionally high and it will be interesting to see where the band go from here, but for now Seven Sisters star is very much ascending.
- Shadow Of A Fallen Star Pt. 2 is released via Dissonance Productions on 28th March 2025.
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Track List:
- Astral Prophecies
- Solar Winds
- Heart Of The Sun
- Andromeda Descending (A Fallen Star Rises)
