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2 Shadows Show They Are Ready For Prime Time With New Song “Mad God”
Somehow I missed hearing 2 Shadows until now. I intend to redress that oversight with this review. The pair of lead singer Glen Bridden and guitarist Tyrst Germaine first banded together as 2 Shadows in 2015 yet still deliver new music with every bit of the passion you’d expect from a hungry debuting act with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. They are in full effect during their new single “Mad God” and, frankly, I haven’t heard metal this immediate and bracing in many years. This band is definitely ready for prime time and I don’t think there’s any stopping them.
Tryst Germaine’s mammoth guitar sound will be a big reason why. It is one of the chief characteristics of their music that I believe separates 2 Shadows from many of their brethren. It immediately dominated the song once it entered the picture in full force, but I must say that it never diminishes the vocal. This is because both Tryst’s guitar, as well as other elements of the song, are so well produced that there isn’t a single component that stands out at the expense of another.
Glen Bridden may be the only singer alive who could keep up with him and this demanding track. Segueing from the bleak and ruminative opening featuring his voice and piano into the six-string bloodletting that follows isn’t something every vocalist can do. He does and, in my opinion, makes it sound easy. He hits many particularly thrilling high points during the song’s more aggressive sections that will leave all but the hardest of hearts thrilled by his musical presence.
Presence is something that this song and band have in abundance. I mentioned that Germaine’s guitar has an all-consuming sound, but it’s really the band as a whole that cannot be denied. The opening section with its piano and singing creates a world all its own without ever seeming like some sort of put on. There’s no doubt in my mind that 2 Shadows would still make music together even if they never recorded another note. These guys are “lifers” and you hear it in their voice and playing alike.
It ends conclusively bookended by the same quiet atmospherics that begins the song. It’s another indication of how the band began the recording process for this track with a clear imaginative vision and followed it through to its logical conclusion. Their focus pays off with one of the most thunderous metal/hard rock tracks in recent memory high and leaves a mark on listeners.
There’s so much music out there and so little time. 2 Shadows simply hadn’t landed on my radar yet. Well, they’re here now, and here they’ll stay. As an older metal fan, I am thrilled to hear a band that likes living on a creative knife edge, but I’m even happier to hear a band that compromises nothing and says take us as we are because we aren’t going anywhere. The single “Mad God” proves 2 Shadows will be with us for some time to come and we, as music fans, are better off for it.
Brent Musgrave
**
Artist Spotlight
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama
Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.
This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.
Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.
Artist Spotlight
“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival
“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.
“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.
Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.
“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.
Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina
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