Evaluations – Shut Your Eyes

Liv Sin has all the time been a diehard. From her days with gritty arduous rockers SISTER SIN, via to her present solo standing and function as certainly one of heavy steel’s most passionate advocates, she has been a reassuring presence for the final decade. The albums launched along with her self-named solo band have been notably gratifying, because the Swedish powerhouse stayed true to the old-school values which have underscored most of her work, whereas additionally taking straight-ahead, melodic arduous rock into unfamiliar, fervently fashionable territory. “Observe Me” was the brutish debut, “Burning Sermons” was the nice consolidation, and 2023’s “KaliYuga” expanded the band’s sound, with relentless, deadly hooks, monstrous, deathly guitar tones and among the most vicious vocals Liv has ever delivered. Getting heavier by the minute, Liv is plainly not within the sepia-tinted, double-denim market. Like her non secular forebear, Dee Snider, she has an pressing have to rock, however by the heaviest means potential.

She all the time had a voice that might scalp all-comers at 100 paces, however Liv Sin has turn out to be an absolute monster in recent times. “Shut Your Eyes” begins with “Reward The Winners”, which seethes with righteous indignance and options the singer in a state of infernal fury. As has more and more been the case, her band’s bedrock of muscular arduous rock is now typically nearer to the punishing, pure steel of ARCH ENEMY than to something from the ’80s, and their chief’s formidable roar has matured massively in consequence. She nails the hook with actual venom on the breathlessly catchy “Run”, makes like a steroidal LIZZY BORDEN on horror story “The Masks”, and delivers brutal defiance and a splash of adolescent petulance on “It is Not Your Life”. At occasions, it’s unashamedly direct: “Louder” and “I Refuse” are the form of insolent, celebratory anthems that Liv was born to sing. In distinction, the closing “Maintain It Collectively” is a lissome pop ballad with a giant steel refrain that she nails to the wall with such furrowed-brow power that everyone inside earshot goes to really feel the splinters.

The best second when LIV SIN embrace the old fashioned with renewed alacrity, “Above The Line”, is a near-perfect steel track, with the chunk and allure of JUDAS PRIEST, the skin-scouring pomp of W.A.S.P. and the lethal, melodic intelligence of IRON MAIDEN. It even takes a quick detour into doom territory, by way of an unpleasant, stuttering riff that blossoms right into a textbook basic steel coda. “Shut Your Eyes” is stuffed with such moments, the place the singer’s infectious enthusiasm is mirrored by the feverish invention of her bandmates, and every little thing falls neatly and loudly into place. LIV SIN proceed to rock, tougher and higher than most, and that voice will nonetheless knock you fucking sideways.