Fires of Freya – Starless Sky single review - Your Online Magazine for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

Genre: Eclectic, Emotive, Rock!

Label: Indpendent

Release date: April 9th 2021

Band Members:

Lead Vocals & Keyboards – Cheryl Reynolds,

Guitar and Backing Vocals – Shaun Evans,

Bass Guitar & Backing Vocals – Harry Iveson,

Drums – Dan Baldwin,

Fires of Freya are a North East of England based rock band with exhilarating monster guitar riffs, soaring solo’s and powerhouse smokey vocals. Their supercharged emotive music is an eclectic mix of rock songs that happily experiment within multiple genres and push all boundaries to create a sound that is uniquely theirs! The bands debut single ‘Take a Bow’ was released in September 2019 and has amassed over 32k streams on Spotify alone, multiple plays on Planet Rock radio station as well as plays on radio stations worldwide.

Latest single Starless Sky is out this Friday (April 9th)

The first notable thing out the new single is the funky bassline from Harry Iveson that leads us neatly into the choppy riff from Shaun Evans. As Dan Baldwin adds the beat and enter stage left Cheryl Reynolds who has a wonderful smokey voice that reminds me of the sounds we would have heard from 70s and 90s rock acts like Heart, Joan Jett, Garbage and more. Why those two decades? At times, the simple but effective production gives it a neat raw feel , a straight out of the studio with no frills approach that makes music from the 70s so clean and timeless and yet at other times there is real depth the sound that gives it that broader 90s feel especially when Evans’s solo kicks in.

As the song comes out of the solo, Cheryl Reynolds steps up another gear and hints of music that has its roots firmly in Kansas and Kentucky. If you like your music mid-west and Southern flavoured then it might just be the seasoning you’re looking for.

As with all things rock, the song lyrics often work at a tangent to the uplifting beat of the music. Whilst ‘Starless Sky’ is an energised rock song that radio stations will surely latch on to, the lyrical content contradicts the happy feel-good vibe of the song deliberately. It’s not so much a break-up song as a message that things are better when you are no longer with the wrong person. So many people right now need to hear a song like this and whilst it might be a tough message to swallow at times, it might just be the trigger for some people to do the right thing and get out of something that previously they felt unable to.

If anything, a celebration of freedom and singlehood, as the band call it, can be a welcome thing. It’s OK to be single, it’s OK to break free, you never know you might just enjoy it. The ’empty starless sky’ is the metaphorical ex or how they are now perceived. Powerful stuff indeed!

Vocalist Cheryl has this to say:

“I am so proud of how the band and our fans have supported each other during this difficult time. It was such a buzz to get back into the studio to record our brand new single “Starless Sky”. We can’t wait to share this feisty and energetic new track with you all, we know you’ll love it! It’s onwards and upwards for Fires of Freya and we hope to see you on road soon!”