Review Summary: A strong beginning to the journey for these young upstarts from London.
From humble origins this notable 'new' NWOBHM outfit came. Seven Sisters, named after the eponymous north London suburb and/or Pleiades star cluster, was born in late 2013 when guitarist/songwriter Kyle McNeill - originally of Burnley, Lancashire thrashers Asythiate - returned to London and quickly sought musicians with the intention of forming a new band. To that end, he joined forces with an old friend in Hammersmith-based shredder Graeme Farmer, and the pair got to work writing material for what would become their first demo,
The Warden. As 2014 rolled around, the ongoing search for bandmembers turned up Dark Forest vocalist Josh Winnard before stalling, leaving Seven Sisters as a studio (or even bedroom!) project at this point, rather than a band. Undeterred, McNeill took on the role of bassist and drum programmer to replace the musicians they had not yet found, enabling the recording of
The Warden. The band officially announced its existence on April 25, 2014, and over the next few weeks, teased their rapidly growing contingent of fans with staggered releases of all but one cut from this demo, with the wait ending on July 1 when
The Warden was released on cassette.
Seven Sisters immediately lay their cards on the table for the vicious opening title cut; the opening salvo of tapping and its rough-and-ready production both instantly recall the golden days of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal - and specifically, in this case, the classic signature song of Angel Witch. Fans of twin-guitar tandems will find much to love about the McNeill/Farmer pairing, and this song does its best to show them off by eschewing choruses for much of the song, instead punctuating its fast-paced verses with shredded leads, before bookending a hard-fought solo duel with the chorus proper. This is very much a guitar song; the rapid pace and density of riffs do not suit Winnard's voice very well, and singing in a lower register does not help matters. Fortunately, this is not a problem in the fantastic "Onwards They Ride", which, aside from being placed well within his comfort zone and a cracking tune to boot, clearly points towards Seven Sisters' forthcoming musical evolution by introducing tasty, harmonised twin-guitar leads and even some backing vocals here and there. Make no mistake, this cut alone is worth the price of admission.
Side two, for those who keep it true by listening to the cassette version, begins with a tune which served for many fans as their introduction to Seven Sisters, in the anthemic "No Guts, No Glory". That quality can be largely attributed to Winnard's confident performance, in which he well and truly makes himself heard; needless to say, his performance on this track greatly outshines that of the other side's opener. Finally,
The Warden parts with demo convention by finishing with the compelling "Avenger", a fully fleshed-out seven-and-a-half minute epic sandwiched by some neat clean guitar passages, packing more riffs and fast (often harmonised) leads, with intensity never letting up. Songs aside, the bass is fairly nondescript, and the drum tracks give the demo a bit of polish, with the exception of the hyper-compressed snare which goes some way towards deceiving the listener into ignoring the fact that no actual drummer is present on this recording. For Seven Sisters, though, an all-too-inevitable setback was to come: the month after the demo was released, vocalist Winnard departed after realising he could not maintain his participation in the band, given his distance from London and commitment to Dark Forest. Still, better things lay around the corner for Seven Sisters, and all in all,
The Warden is a commendable effort.
