New York heavy rockers Mirror Queen pretty much sum up their entire story with “Strangers in Our Own Time,” the nine-minute longest track from their upcoming LP, Scaffolds of the Sky, out April 21 on Tee Pee Records. Both in terms of what works best in their sound — the double-guitar NOWBHM-isms as filtered through ’70s atmospheres, heavy psychedelia and laid back roll — and in how their aesthetic places them as outliers. The four-piece have toured in Europe and the US since the 2011 release of their debut, From Earth Below, playing alongside the likes of Greenleaf, Truckfighters, Blaak Heat Shujaa, among many 0thers, the band having grown out of guitarist/vocalist Kenny Sehgal‘s prior outfit, Aytobach Kreisor.

Joined in Mirror Queen by lead guitarist Phi Moon, bassist James Corallo and drummer Jeremy O’Brien, Sehgal leads the way through seven tracks of classically progressive heavy rock and roll. Not necessarily all-out psychedelic all the time in terms of an effects wash or unhinged echo swirl, Scaffolds of the Sky nonetheless unfolds with warm, natural tonality and a laid back atmosphere contrary to the intensity of the city in which it was crafted. The opening title-track seems to nod directly at Cream, and as they push through crunchier riffs of songs like “Quarantined” and “At the Borderline on the Edge of Time,” the latter not nearly as Hawkwindian as the title might convey, they hold true to the steady roll of “Scaffolds of the Sky,” the push of the trippier “Vagabondage” and “Strangers in Our Own Time,” the closing duo of “Dark Ships Arrived” and “Wings Wetted Down” exploring more open territory with a foundation in Corallo‘s basslines and O’Brien‘s swinging drums, Moon and Sehgal strumming and soloing into a quiet kind of space rock, wide-ranging but somehow still organically textured.

Today I have the distinct pleasure of hosting “Strangers in Our Own Time” for streaming ahead of the Scaffolds of the Sky release this month. Its extended runtime wraps up side A of the album and it provides a particularly hypnotic roll in its central riff, shifting into double-guitar jamming that takes off the chorus hook with a snare build and heady coating of wah. By the time they break it down into the creeping, stop-short retread of the central figure, the charm is writ large over the track as they drive ahead toward the final groove. I hope you’ll agree, and enjoy:

NYC volume dealers MIRROR QUEEN take guitar rock by force on the ominously titled Scaffolds of the Sky. The band’s driving music accelerates at the distinct point where NWOBHM and heavy Prog Rock intersect; a direct and definite delineation of an era when urgent metallic sound was the order of the day. MIRROR QUEEN’s twin-guitar harmonies and rhythmic gallop recall early Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, while its hook-laden, timeless riffs and instrumental fireworks reference cherished champions UFO, Blue Oyster Cult and Captain Beyond.

A mainstay in the NYC hard rock scene, MIRROR QUEEN has shared the stage with heavyweight peers such as Earthless and The Shrine in addition to European tours with legends such as UFO and Uli Jon Roth! Scaffolds of the Sky is a modern day collection of laser-focused, lights out songs that carry the listener across a myriad of musical thresholds, each at once, time-honored and top-notch.

Mirror Queen on Thee Facebooks

Tee Pee Records

Tags: Mirror Queen, Mirror Queen Scaffolds of the Sky, New York City, Scaffolds of the Sky, Tee Pee Records

This entry was posted on Monday, April 6th, 2015 at 12:15 pm and is filed under audiObelisk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.