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NIKKI STRINGFIELD
Harmonies For The Haunted
Independent

From her humble teenage years in Dallas, Texas, to several play through videos on YouTube, the legacy of famed six-string shredder Nikki Stringfield is as loud and proud as many of the riffs she’s played over the course of her musical career. Her persistence and talent are what led the ambitious metal maven to endorsement deals with Schecter Guitars and ultimately to her current gig since 2012 with Los Angeles-based international tribute sensations THE IRON MAIDENS With her signature model guitar in tow, Nikki performed and recorded with several LA original bands along the way and has graced the pages of several guitar publications including Guitar World and the cover of Guitar Girl Magazine.

With that said, while the prospect of banging out “Number Of The Beast” and “Aces High” to loyal fans around the world alongside her MAIDEN squad of fine talented musicians will always be a focus for the one known as Davina Murray, her true yearning lies in making her own voice and music heard. That and accessibility to maple fudge, but that’s an opinion shared unanimously by the whole band when I’d interviewed them last year. Kidding aside, Nikki’s first official recordings of original work titled Harmonies For The Haunted is her own musical just desserts.

The five-song EP may appear as not quite as ambitious in terms of the number of songs on it, but given that Nikki covers all of the songwriting and instrument arrangements (excluding the drums courtesy of Jesse Billson) on it, this is still an overall accomplishment with the focus shifting to equal parts of songwriting as well as playing. Produced by Patrick Kennison who’s known for his work with Lita Ford and HEAVEN BELOW, Harmonies transcends several lyrical and musical emotions ranging from betrayal to revenge to unrequited love. The songs themselves even range from 5-minute extended cuts such as “Haunted” and “Straight Through The Heart” to a thrashier and shorter number such as “Unbroken”. Even the most ballad-like track on the whole EP titled “Take Me”, while lyrically poignant and effective enough to be a well-rounded modern love song, is also direct enough to cover its subject of earnest affection.

All in all, Harmonies For The Haunted is really more of a reflection of power and adversity. Case in point would be the driving opening number “When The Devil Comes Down” with its seething no-holds-barred lyrical rejection with lines like “Cause I need you/Like hell needs fire” and “Can you feel me rising/As you fall into the flames”. Nikki doesn’t hold back on whoever her detractors are on the song and further tempts the listener with her mostly overlooked welcoming-but-deadly crooning vocal style in parts which would be comparable to some of HALESTORM’s most recent work.

Whatever the follow-up album may bring during downtime between IRON MAIDENS tours, Nikki’s already brought her sound and voice forward with Harmonies For The Haunted and is destined to put a scare into her toughest critics.

4.5 Out Of 5.0

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