Speedclaw Stardust Review
Speedclaw
Stardust
Dying Victims Productions
2025
Croatian Heavy Metal band, Speedclaw comes roaring in with their debut album, “Stardust”, an album that feels like someone cracked open a time capsule filled with every jagged edge of early Speed/Heavy Metal and let it spill all over 2025. There’s no warm-up, no easing in, the band hits the ignition and suddenly you’re clinging to the hood of a jet-powered muscle car, eyes watering, hair on fire, grinning like a maniac.
This album is built on velocity. Not the polished, arena-gloss kind, this is speed born from rusted steel, downtown alley grit, and the kind of hunger only a band with something to prove can conjure. The riffs slice like rotor blades, all tight picking and razor-sharp melodies. The twin guitar solos scream like they’re trying to outrun themselves. And the rhythm section is locked in a dead sprint, refusing to give you a single moment of breath unless you claw it out yourself.
Every track on this album feels dangerous and like it could fly off the rails at any second, yet it never does. Instead, Speedclaw weaponizes the chaos, riding the edge so hard you start to forget where the line even was. The vocals bark with just the right amount of wild-eyed mania, giving the songs that classic “we’re lifers” magic.
What really pulls this record together is the band’s knack for melodic hooks buried under the speed. These aren’t “radio friendly” melodies, they’re the kind that sink their teeth in, and refuse to let go. You’ll find yourself humming parts long after your ears stop ringing.
“Stardust” sounds like a fistfight between the past and the future, and Speedclaw walks away from the wreckage holding both trophies. It’s fast. It’s filthy. It’s everything a Heavy Metal record should be, and a reminder that the genre is at its deadliest when it feels like it might come unhinged.
If you’ve been craving an album that punches the gas and never even thinks about touching the brake, “Stardust” is your new addiction.
Standout Tracks – “The Curse Never Dies”, “Queen Of The Night”, “Allnighter” and “White Town Rider”.