Anyone remember that somewhat aggressive individual The Mean Machine who crawled out The Cursed Earth in golden era 2000AD Judge Dredd? Well I kind of have him in mind when listening to hardcore and imagine that there is a dial on my head, one that you never ever want to see going all the way up to 5. Playing this new one from US HC band Shai Hulud it was easily peaking on level four and the violence and fury coming out the speakers were enough to cause more than a few dents on head butting the wall.
I appreciate this band have a highly revered status within the scene but I have to admit this was my first encounter with them and judging by review request responses from other writers here at Ave Noctum I was not alone. Since they got together in 1995 I can see that they have had no less than 28 band members going through their revolving doors, which means it cannot be at all easy managing to get things done. Indeed in all that time this is just their fourth album so it is not too surprising that although recognising their name (taken from the sand worms in Dune if you were wondering) I can be somewhat excused for missing them.
Obviously I cannot compare their old stuff but pressing play this delivered everything that one would have expected going in blind to a band playing this style and based in New York.
Wallop, no intro necessary as ‘The Mean Spirits, Breathing’ batters in. Singer Chad Gilbert who has apparently returned to the band to provide vocals after a decade and to make things more confusing is not their touring vocalist, has one stance of delivery and that’s to shout loud n proud. Not that this is a bad thing at all and it gets the point across (whatever that point happens to be). There’s plenty of meaty backing gang vocals to back him up and get the point across even more (apparently provided by the uncredited Freman Warriors as per all the bands albums) and it hits like a guard dog chewing your testicles. The guitars have plenty of substance about them and free fall in convoluted style at times offering much more than the mere simplicity you might expect. Sure they are hardly like the convulsing strains of say Botch but they meander all over the place and add more to the more one dimensional meathead singing style. Thinking man’s hardcore well why not and this stands up nicely along the side of the likes of Earth Crisis as far as I am concerned. A yell of “Chaos” has ‘Reach Beyond The Stars’ going into astral rifferama scorching away before the determined beefy yells of the singer turn it into another muscular brawl.
There is plenty to like here, it does the job and gets everything working fast and it is the musical equivalent of pumping iron with Arnie. Nothing tops the four minute mark and the album does its job and gets out of town without any lean being found. There are moments that are a bit slower like the anthem etched ‘A Human Failing’ but slower does not mean that things are any less aggressive and in the face. Nothing particularly stands out amongst the 11 songs but nothing particularly needs to considering the overall bludgeoning this provides. This is the sort of band that with a song like ‘If A Mountain Be My Obstacle’ no doubt steam straight through it or run over the top. They are upbeat and lyrically life affirming but not preaching from any Christian or straight-edge rule book which makes just over half an hour with them quite endurable. I really cannot see anyone into proper rugged hardcore not liking this or finding anything really to fault about it.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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