Speedclaw-Iron Speed

Shadow Kingdom
2017

Hailing from Croatia, Speedclaw have knocked a six song tape with five originals and a cover of Exciter's Heavy Metal Maniac. Let's get to the positives- they have tried to travel back in time to 82-83 and play a style of metal that draws on both NWOBHM such as Saxon, Maiden, Raven and they draw from early speed metal like Exciter and Slayer. I'm all for drawing from that period and those type of bands. The vocals are pretty good and manage to compliment the music well enough. Normally if a band does an EP I hate to see a cover because it means less originals, but their Exciter cover does the  original justice. Now to the negatives. While what is  here is mostly good I just couldn't get past how basic it was at some spots. They are certainly better than other bands playing this style, but if I compare to debuts from other band s playing this style in the last decade like say Enforcer or Cauldron I'd say Speedclaw come up short. They have to potential to really be something, but just have to work on fleshing out their songs a bit more. I wish them luck in future and look forward to seeing what they do next.