Owl ‘Feaster From The Stars/Stone Loner’ 7″/Digital 2012

If they weren’t so damn good anyway, I’d already be predisposed toward digging Oakland hessians Owl for the following reasons…

I like Owls, their rockin’ bassist Melanie ‘Manslaughter’ Burkett is one of my colleagues over at the galaxy’s greatest blog Illogical Contraption, and the A-side of this here platter o’ wax is named ‘Feaster From The Stars’, a title that, if you know your weird fiction – and I do – you’ll know is actually referenced by H.P Lovecraft in his story The Haunter From The Dark and is attributed to writer Robert Harrison Blake who was, in fact, a literary ‘in joke’ representing future-Psychoauthor Robert Bloch, a young correspondent of Gran’pa Lovecraft.

That crowd were always doing this kind of thing, marmalizing thinly-veiled versions of one another in their fiction, snickering at in-jokes and terrible pseudonyms thrown in for their own amusement….and for sad bastards such as myself to enjoy and revel in years after they’re all long-dead and buried.

Clearly someone in Owl is also such a sad bastard, which brings joy to my heart.

So, as you see, Owl were most certainly onto a winner before I’d even heard’em. Luckily for me, you andOwl themselves, actually hearing them only served to further endear ’em to me.

The brace of tracks contained herein have a definite rough-arsed NWOBHM thing going on, teamed with a scrappy punk attitude and a low-tech proggy expansiveness that hints toward early Iron Maiden as an influence.

I detect definite Fancy Metal touches too, with the use of harmonies and sudden time changes in ‘Feaster From The Stars’in particular tugging on my ear.

There is a real down-n-dirty approach to Owl’s sound that really gives ’em an extra edge, non-typical almost garagey vocals and a real murkiness to their overall sound that adds a real appeal to the whole shebang.

B-Side ‘Stone Loner’has that punk/garage ‘tude down pat, plus a hazy prog thing going on during the latter half of the track. ‘Feaster From The Stars’is more of the fancy-NWOBHM side of things, but one thing that unites both sides is the grrrrrrrrreat playing from all involved – Manslaughter keeps things held-down tight on the bass-end, whilst the brothers Baechle – Clint on drums (also from fellow heshers Hazzard’s Cure) and Alex and Axell on guitars and vocals – take care of every other bit of musical business.

Now, mention must be made of the fact that Axell is 17 years old and shreds like a goddamn MANIAC. Clearly the boy is the secret weapon of Owl, deployed to add further awesomosity when needed . Those Baechle brothers are squeaky-tight.

Enough reasons for you to wanna check Owl out in there kids? Well go give a hoot.

Label: Tombs In The Valley Productions / Magick Hermit Records
Website: www.owlbrotherhood.net

Scribed by: Paul Robertson