Here is another excellent band emerging powerfully from the self-publishing undergrowth. Shadecrown comes up with a demo of only three tracks but with content that is well worth many full lengths released by bands pumped to the max by their labels. The quintet succeeds in the not so obvious feat of offering melodic death doom that draws the best from some historical Finnish bands: the drama and heaviness of Swallow The Sun in primis, but also the melodic sense of Amorphis and the dark groove of Sentenced come together in a surprising mix for freshness and impact. The demo opens with Silent Waters, a track that one cannot help but love on first listen provoking a compulsive desire to hear it again and again, distinguished as it is by a chilling guitar melody inserted within a structure made of granitic riffs; Ghostlike Existence possesses an even more rocky riff, with an almost doom-like structure, but here too the chorus unfolds into a perfectly catchy melody. The Sun Shines Cold is the most canonically death doom episode but that is not to say that the outcome is inferior, far from it; in this scant quarter of an hour Shadecrown show enormous potential, leaving us with as our only recrimination that we cannot listen to an entire album. It only remains to hope that European labels will not miss the opportunity to grab the services of this excellent band, it would be a real crime if this demo goes unnoticed without leaving any mark.

2013 – Independent