{"id":101282,"date":"2023-08-04T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T23:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=101282"},"modified":"2023-08-18T12:23:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T11:23:25","slug":"album-review-owlbear-chaos-to-the-realm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-owlbear-chaos-to-the-realm\/","title":{"rendered":"OWLBEAR &#8211; Chaos To The Realm (2023) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title2\"><strong>OWLBEAR<br \/>Chaos To The Realm<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" height=\"3\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"title3\"><span style=\"color: #c80000;\">Alone (2023)<\/span><br \/><strong>Rating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/owlbear_chaostotherealm.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"200\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>When I saw the band name and cover art I naively assumed this was some sort of generic stoner rock opus, but I\u2019m glad I was wrong. Owlbear is a Boston, Massachusetts-based band that provides straight up heavy metal not a world away from Iron Maiden and that sort of galloping steel but very much entrenched in the realm of <em>Dungeons &#038; Dragons<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Owlbear are fronted by Katy Scary who at times can boast a rather annoying pop punk cum emo vocal vibe (which I certainly won\u2019t win any fans for saying), but that aside the rest of the band \u2013 Jeff Taft (guirar), Leona Hayward (bass) and Estee Slaughter (drums) \u2013 bring a rather fluid and often contemporary glint to their brand of traditional metal.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly this does feel a tad lightweight at times, maybe even rushed, and after a few listens a few tracks seem to melt into one lengthy borderline power metal trundle. However, there are also plenty of moments to note like the fast paced \u2018Cult Of The Serpent\u2019, the steadier if somewhat mechanical \u2018Tyrant\u2019s Fall (The Death Of The Sorcerer-King)\u2019 and the fiery \u2018luz The Old\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Katy Scary can certainly be a versatile vocalist and has been involved in numerous projects, although for some reason here the vocals don\u2019t always sit right with me, but that\u2019s just my opinion. Even so, this is a solid enough if rather formulaic metal outing that brings to mind a weaker Running Wild or Eternal Champion and the likes in its quest for gold.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OWLBEARChaos To The Realm Alone (2023)Rating: 6.5\/10 When I saw the band name and cover art I naively assumed this was some sort of generic stoner rock opus, but I\u2019m glad I was wrong. Owlbear is a Boston, Massachusetts-based band that provides straight up heavy metal not a world away from Iron Maiden and that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5471],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-owlbear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101284,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101282\/revisions\/101284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}