A Modern Masquerade – ‘Shadowboy’

A Modern Masquerade 1

With an opening riff reminiscent of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by Led Zeppelin, A Modern Masquerade ensure us that new release, ‘Shadowboy’, is definitely worth a listen.

The Scottish trio, from Corstorphine, Edinburgh, recorded ‘Shadowboy’, and its B-side, ‘Mazes and Monsters’, at leading Scottish studio Castlesound, and had it produced by Garry Boyle and Stuart Hamilton, who include Simple Minds and REM among their clients. ‘Shadowboy’ has the afore-mentioned Led Zepp influence, as well as a Royal Blood feel to it. ‘Mazes and Monsters’, on the other hand, takes its lyrical inspiration from Mark Z. Danielewski’s horror novel ‘House of Leaves’.

Known for their energetic live shows (the band have played key Edinburgh venues including La Belle Angele and The Mash House and are also soon to play at Sneaky Pete’s), A Modern Masquerade transfer this to ‘Shadowboy’ and you feel that the song would be equally at home in an arena as a club or pub. With each of A Modern Masquerade now furthering their education at university (Drummer Alex Thoms left Edinburgh to study Art in Aberdeen, Lead Guitarist Craig Grassie is studying Psychology at The University of Edinburgh, while Lead Singer and Rhythm Guitarist Alex Cameron is part of Edinburgh College’s Popular Music Course), we should expect their experiences to bring an even stronger sound to their already finely-crafted lyrics.

A Modern Masquerade will launch ‘Shadowboy’ at Edinburgh’s Electric Circus on November 3. ‘Shadowboy’ and ‘Mazes and Monsters’, will be available on CD (on sale at the launch) and via download on October 31.

Find A Modern Masquerade on Facebook, Twitter, and Bandcamp. 

Check out their top 10 songs they can’t live without in their contribution to the Essential Weekly Playlist.

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com