In many mysterious ways England seems to be a country that defies logic and common sense. Cars drive on the left side of the road and the Romans never managed to teach the English the metric system. Furthermore, short is the list of English metal bands that have attained some level of success in their own country. Sure, one or two albums are successful but after that a band usually fails to have any further impact on their fellow countrymen; quickly labeled as either being boring or unoriginal. A strange phenomenon and unfortunately the media are only feeding the flames of the fire. Given that situation, it is no wonder that the metal scene isn’t blossoming like in the rest of Europe. Fortunately there are still bands that won’t give in and fight this status quo to the very end. ShadowKeep is one of these bands and they have demonstrated to be excellent ‘warriors’.

Right from the very first second this quintet show their intentions; a clear statement to all power metal fans out there. This is old school power metal that has ‘the American way’ written allover it. A Chaos Theory feels like a trip back in time to the Eighties; you’ll hear good old Helstar (do you still remember the masterpiece Nosferatu?), Queensr˙che, Crimson Glory and of course Fates Warning. This is an album that fills the immense gap those bands have left in their wake and I already know what you are thinking, “Why do we need another copycat band?” Well, we don’t but ShadowKeep certainly isn’t a copycat and although they remind of the aforementioned bands they have nevertheless managed to retain their own sound and identity.

The strongest part of A Chaos Theory is definitely the guitar work. Chris Allen and Nicki Robson unleash one absolutely fabulous technical guitar riff after the other. The balance between speed, aggression and melody is good and the guitars never become too dominant. Add to that the excellent vocals of singer Rogue and one just has to conclude that ShadowKeep has delivered an excellent metal album. I do however have one small complaint; some of the songs are slightly too repetitive but fortunately it never gets to the point where it becomes annoying.

Will ShadowKeep succeed in convincing their fellow countrymen? Most likely not. The most probable outcome is that the band will be labeled unoriginal. Leaving this aside they have nevertheless managed to convince me and fortunately the metal world is bigger than England alone. I seriously advice anyone who is into American power metal to check this band out because if you won’t you’ll certainly be missing out on something!