Black Tower are a three-piece from Ottawa, Canada that are self proclaimed The Hobbit diehards. If you look at their bio on BandCamp, they describe their sound as metal from Middle-earth, which is all kinds of rad if you ask me. Though they contend that “Tolkien would not approve,” I disagree wholeheartedly. If the legendary author was still alive today, I can easily imagine him writing an Orc battle scene to Black Tower’s shreddy track, “Riders”.

Equal parts Iron Maiden, hard rock, and thrash, the band impresses on several fronts. The drumming from Dave Williams is super on point and the shifting vocal duties by Erin Ewing, Skottie Lobotomy, and Williams make their work sound intimidatingly large, dominant, and aggressive. But there is also a sweetness to their sound, as you can hear in “Riders”, that neutralizes the caustic bite of their instrumentals. Black Tower strikes a good balance. Even if they sound like they are about to rip your head off and parade it around on a stake, you can’t help but feel like they are going to do so tenderly.

Black Tower’s debut album, Secret Fire drops June 2.