A blistering new release from Shadowvale certainly leaves its mark as it blends together elements of thrash, death, black, and melodic metal all together as they create a gothic edged and brutal soundscape with vast undertones and this massive sonic drive that just hits super hard.
The Austere EP waste no time delivering gigantic tonalities that have an expansive feel and bringing in those trudging and speed, thrashy riffs that all come with a fierceness and fire in its underbelly.
This is for metal fans of pretty much all kinds simply because they do again, blend all these sub genres of metal together and in doing so, they create a sort of atmosphere that you end up really digging and I can also say that this is the kind of EP that you need to listen to from beginning to end simply because it's got a connectivity between the songs almost like a concept album would.
One of the things I love most about this record aside from the guitar tone, riffs, brutal vocals, and intense, blitzkrieg approach to the drumming, is it's rumbling and deepening bass guitar tone.
These guys have such a great approach because there's a progressiveness in this record and their surprises around the corners that sort of blow you away because you're not ready for them.
I grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of metal and one of my favorite bands in the genre is Slayer.
That's just one example of the many influences that these guys must have, and you can hear the different influences from the different styles and approaches of metal coming in and out throughout the unfolding of the record itself.
That thrash metal Slayer approach is definitely part of their thing, and they nail that aesthetic super well.
This is a rambunctious and intense record that has so much amazing guitar work that if you listen to only one or two tracks from this release then yes, you might get a gist of what you can expect, but you're not getting the full spectrum of what the EP has to offer as a whole.
For real metal fans, this is a full record listen without question.
There's also an amazing element to their energy that makes you feel like the base of these tracks were recorded live on the floor and everyone was just feeding off of each other's energies the entire time.
I love this element as well because again, it builds on the intensity and fierceness of this record which has such a vivacious approach that the whole thing just hits like a sucker punch to the gut.
I mean that in the best possible way of course.
These guys are masters of their instruments and even the vocalist does such an amazing job of building that energy up and being able to push all the songs through the threshold that they're trying to get to.
You can tell that these guys have a real love for their craft and for the genre of metal as a whole. When I say their craft, I don't mean just playing instruments or singing. I mean writing songs together that are just massive and hit hard and heavy while holding little to nothing back in terms of their artistry.
What I mean by that one is that a lot of people don't really understand how much it takes to write metal like this. To perform metal like this I should say.
People that don't listen to a lot of metal even just classic melodic metal, don't fully understand the techniques, the practice, and the intricacy it takes to be able to track songs like these.
As I mentioned earlier these guys are masters of their instruments and I don't say that lightly.
This entire band could release a jazz record if they wanted to. That's how good they are at their instruments.
This was a killer EP from beginning to end and if you don't listen to it aloud, then just don't listen to it at all.
This is so much better nice and loud or even more so, listening to it with headphones on really does the job.
It's a head banging, fist in the air, mosh pit worthy banger from beginning to end and it's got something for metal fans of all kinds in there.
Definitely check this one out and remember to turn it up.
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