I’m a guy of many tastes, and I can honestly say that I feel I can listen to a good majority of whatever happens to be thrown my way in terms of metal, albeit I obviously have more a preference from one style to the next. However, I always appreciate how one band can sound f**king awesome and be ceaselessly entertaining, and then how the very next band can weave complex rhythms and beats together to make this mind-bending experience like no other before it. Curt Shaw does a little bit of both with his latest record of “Adversity”. The thirteen tracks that make up this record place in the comfortable and very familiar territory that’s covered by a little bit of traditional heavy metal and a little bit of power metal to get this experience that can really only be called metal in its entirety, and I love it because of that. But there’s plenty of other reasons to indulge yourself in what “Adversity” has to offer. To begin with: it f**king shreds in so many of its songs. There’s plenty of speed and diversity spread throughout this record that it does a very good job at keeping the listener reeled in and always entertained, which is always a good thing to see with any piece of music. But then there’s the fact that Shaw can seamlessly shift from some f**king sick riffs to absolutely killing it on the guitar with monstrous solos and awesome power that just hearing them leaves you wondering just how long it took for the man to actually get the finger movement down before getting it right. My favorite part with “Adversity”, though, would absolutely have to be the instrumental and acoustic interludes that Shaw places throughout the album. There’s a total of five of them on the album, and they make for really good breaks amongst all that power that Shaw lays down for the remainder of the piece. And in the end, it’s hard for me to say that I didn’t enjoy “Adversity” even though I’m far from loving it. It’s a real metal experience that any casual listener of the genre can really get into, and if you’ve been a long time fan of metal like myself and want an album that vaguely sounds like a throwback piece but is still undoubtedly modern, Curt Shaw has got just the thing for you with “Adversity”.
You can purchase “Adversity” via iTunes here, and stream it on Spotify here.
