High-range vocals layered over brutal, crunchy guitar rhythms and fast-paced drums is the sound of Shadows Entwined, one of the few power metal bands playing in Los Angeles today.
The band will play tomorrow at the City of Industry’s outside arena at 8 p.m.
“Power metal is more distinct than other genres of metal because it is more melodious and poetic,” Walter Martinez, EC student and lead guitarist, said.
The band also includes guitarist Emilio Coello, drummer Romeo Cisnero, bassist Steve Ceron, a previous student of EC and lead vocalist Tim Anderson. Martinez and Anderson brandish Iron Maiden and Van Halen t-shirts, respectively, while they practice the set for their upcoming show.
“Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire, Helloween and Van Halen were huge influences,” Anderson said.
Similar desires to play symphonic metal led band members to find each other and form Shadows Entwined in December 2007.
The band members believe their sound is unique.
“It’s really hard to come across power metal in L.A.,” Cisnero said. “Thrash, death metal and black metal are taking over the area because most people want to hear screaming and super hostile noise.”
Their distinctive sound is loud and aggressive, but their intensity is calculated, easy to grasp and laced with harmony.
“I’m an energy addict. I follow musical energy and I want to play it,” Martinez said.
Anderson’s vocals swing high and clear over the rhythmic pounding of drums, bass and guitar.
“I was in a thrash metal band three or four years ago and we were playing in the basement of a church,” Martinez said. “I heard Tim’s band playing and I was floored by his vocals; I thought ‘Oh my God, this guy can sing!'”
Instead of rough, indistinguishable grumbles, Shadows Entwined’s melodies allow the listener to understand the lyrics.
“There’s a lot of imagery and storytelling in our music,” Anderson said.
The lyrics focus on the philosophical tensions of human innocence and human evil.
“Our title describes seeing your shadow or reflection doing something mesmerizing, something dark, something chaotic, on its own,” Cisneros said.
Each of the band members contributed ideas to design their own T-shirts, which they got specially made for their performance at Whiskey a Go Go.
“We’re working on getting stickers and more T-shirts,” Ceron, who has been playing the bass guitar for about five years, said.
The band has produced one album, ‘Nightmares Made Flesh’.
“It takes about a month to write and orchestrate each song because we keep adding layer after layer to our original melody,” Martinez said.
Shadows Entwined opened for heavy metal artist Doro Pesche at the Whiskey a Go Go on Sunset Boulevard for its first show.
“It was such an honor to open for the princess of metal,” Coello said.
The rockers have their own music profile on popular networking website MySpace. It can be seen at www.myspace.comshadowsentwined.
