Sheer Mag
A Distant Call
Release Date: Aug 23, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Wilsuns Recording Co.
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Album Review: A Distant Call by Sheer Mag
Excellent, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Sheer Mag are one of the most loveable rock bands on the planet. Their second album is a semi-concept album about strife, struggle and the desire to overcome. There's a defiant hero in each of these songs and, riff after riff, you're rooting for them to win Sheer Mag’s 2017 debut 'Need To Feel Your Love' packed the same punch as their initial hype-building trio of EPs (handily titled 'I', 'II' and 'III'); these were authentic dispatches from their hometown of Philadelphia.
Based on rating 7.8/10
At this point in Sheer Mag's five-year career, the Philadelphia four-piece has delivered more power-pop and heavy metal riffs than a Thin Lizzy cover band expo. Their face-slapping, fist-pumping anthems have sounded countless working-class and socialist rallying cries. By now, are we hoping for more of the same? Or are we ready for growth, their "weird" album, the kind that would shuttle the group from one vintage era to another, maybe a record with some '80s-influenced keytar and 808s, alongside a '90s grungy self-seriousness? When a band is so deeply rooted in and influenced by an era long since past, progress can be hard to track.
Opinion: Excellent
T he second album by the Philadelphia outfit Sheer Mag begins with a yowl. Triumphant, guttural and faintly unhinged, it's the kind that suggests arena-sized excess, permed mullets and peacocking masculinity. That it is delivered by a woman, the band's commanding and pleasingly rough-around-the-edges vocalist Tina Halladay, is the first clue that this almost comically retro mashup of hard rock and power pop may not be an entirely straightforward historical re-enactment.
Opinion: Great
The Lowdown: When Sheer Mag came roaring out the gate with three tremendous EPs, it was on the backs of their killer rips and singer Tina Halladay's booming voice that found the band rocking so hard. A reprieve from countless fine indie rock bands delving into bedroom pop, Sheer Mag wanted to rock and did so with an unmatched fervor. After exploring slower, soulful elements on 2017's full-length debut, Need to Feel Your Love, Sheer Mag have settled into a nice groove on follow-up A Distant Call.
'A Distant Call'
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