KEITH MERROW RELEASES THE FIRST METAL ALBUM OF 2011

Solo instrumentalist / one-man band mastermind Keith Merrow — whose praises we’ve sung on MetalSucks many a time — has come out with what by my calculation is the very first metal release of 2011, his new record Awaken the Stone King. Heavy Blog is Heavy was the first site to report on the release, which seemingly came out of nowhere, with a non-time-stamped post on December 31st… but we’re just gonna call a mulligan here and proclaim Stone King the first metal release of 2011.

“Merrow,” the moniker that the album cover would seem to indicate Sir Keith is now going by (a smart move, IMO) — has made Awaken the Stone King available as a $9.99 download on his website, where you can also listen to song samples from the whole record. If you can remember all the way back to December (hard, I know), you’d recall that Nevermore’s Jeff Loomis guest solos on a track; I definitely can’t wait to hear that one (which I believe is “Heart of the Sea Nymph”, track 2), but just from listening to these songs samples I’m already sold on this album… so far, so great, no hot-shot cameo necessary. Keith is a phenomenal musician whose composition and performance skills I can’t give enough praise. I’m sold; downloading now.

All of Merrow’s prior releases are available for free if you wanna catch yourself up his catalogue, which I highly recommend. Donations are welcomed.

-VN