No group, no matter how classic, ever wants to hang them up without making sure that the baton has been passed to capable hands. Whitesnake will be conducting their farewell tour later this summer, and they’ve chosen Sweden’s ferocious THUNDERMOTHER to get those final shows started. Once you hear “Watch Out,” the group’s latest single, we think you’ll agree: there simply wasn’t any other possibility.

It's not just that the members of THUNDERMOTHER rock hard, or that they’re virtuosic on their instruments, or that frontwoman Guernica Mancini knows how and when to unleash a hellacious roar. It isn’t even that their discography is impeccable, or that Black And Gold, their upcoming fifth album, is the best and most confident thing that they’ve ever done. It’s that THUNDERMOTHER is so perfectly aligned with the values and aesthetics of hard rock and power metal, as it’s played by the masters, that they aren’t merely a great band. No, the members of this all-female quartet are keepers of the flame.

So if you’ve got any taste for ‘70s or early ‘80s guitar music (and why wouldn’t you?), this is the band to check out. Their version of hard rock is pulverizing, sure, but it swings, too. It roars like a jet engine, but it’s also melodic. The spirit of AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Judas Priest is alive in every note they play, and they proceed like the fragmentation that has splintered the genre since the 1990s never even happened. This is metal at its purest, and, not coincidentally, it’s also metal at its most fun. Think of “Watch Out” as a statement of purpose and a declaration of their collective queendom, and also an indication of just how much heat they can bring in a concert setting.

And if you need another indication, there’s the scalding video for “Watch Out.” Here are the four members of THUNDERMOTHER going as hard as they can: drums slamming, bass throbbing, and a six-string solo played, naturally, atop a stack of amplification. They’re not only true to the sound of classic hard rock and metal — they’ve got the attitude and the visuals down, too. In traditional fashion, we watch them ride to the practice space together, horsing around in the car, raising hell, and radiating the sort of exuberance that this sort of music calls for. Whitesnake understands; Scorpions, who are also on the bill, do too. Like all hard rock true believers do, they look at THUNDERMOTHER and see them for what they are: the next in line.

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