Review | King Mountain-Kingdom Of Shadows

Grooveyard Records

We have mentioned the name Stavros Papadopoulos several times on these pages. The Greek guitarist/singer/producer and composer plays an important role for USA label Grooveyard, spearheading several bands and projects like for instance Revolution Highway and Super Vintage. He also was the man behind the recent album ‘Rock And Roll Paradise’ of female vocalist Tania Kikidi. Earlier this year Stavros presented King Mountain, a melodic heavy rock power trio with himself on guitar and vocals, Chris Lagios on drums and John Christopoulos on bass.

GUITAR FREAK

Stavros is a man who likes to mix things up. But one thing is always a central item and that is relentless and very juicy guitar work. That is by the way also a must if you want to release material via Grooveyard. Owner Joe Ramagnola is a guitar freak pur sang so all his releases are focussed on the guitar. King Mountain fits in that philosophy. All songs are heavily dominated by exorbitant solos and riffs that are dripping in fat. This is a very traditional guitar record, there is no room for gimmicks or other tricks.

This band rocks straight forward and hard with Stavros playing his heart out on songs like ,,She’s In My Blood’’, ,,Slaves Of The New World’’ and ,,Ruined In Flames’’. A bit different in comparison with Super Vintage where Stavros uses more blues and southern rock influences, ‘Kingdom Of Shadows’ is more rock and (slightly) metal orientated. It should appeal to a large army of people that like a bit of traditional based guitar masturbation. On top of that Stavros is not a bad vocalist either. So taking everything into consideration ‘Kingdom Of Shadows’ is an okay album.