Experimental Tech-Metal outfit Shame are a 5 piece who first caught the attention of many during the Lockdown years with their debut release ‘Stalker’ released in 2021 which featured some rather high-profile guest appearances from members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Leprous and Tangaroa. Now with a more solidified line up which features the core members of John Bailey on guitars, Chris Reese (Corrupt Moral Altar) on vocals and Arran McSporran (Virvum/Vipassi) on fretless bass and the new additions of Jay Walsh on drums and a second guitarist in Jimmy Wilson. What drew me to take a look at this record is the vocalist. Chris Reese is someone who has impressed me with how ferocious and raw his vocals are in both the studio setting and in a live environment, and the intensity he brings to the stage combined with some mind-bending technical metal seemed like a good thing to give a go at writing about. So let’s get on with it shall we?
With lyrical themes centred around the concepts of existence, mental health, politics, and philosophy, you can tell this album has some heaviness to it. Combined with how angular and entropic the music seems to be, this 35-minute album is an experience from start to finish which will need several listens to before you can even begin to make sense of it. The ferocious roars and screams of Reese are complimented by relentless bursts of frantic guitars and pummelling drums, rounded out by a rather warm and deep fretless bass locking it all together. The opening assault of “Machiavelli” is a constantly shifting affair which jumps from frantic Avant-Garde like trills and fills to colossal slabs of groove laden metal with no warning or transitions. Loaded with explosive energy for the majority of the track, it is an attention getter and honestly, if this track doesn’t lead you to be at the least intrigued, then chances are this is not the release for you.
There are some softer compositions on the album. “Shame” has a haunting intro which features delayed clean guitars chiming over a soft fretless bass section before it erupts into the expected chaos which makes me ask the question ‘Is this what Frank Zappa, Napalm Death and The Dillinger Escape Plan’s bastard child would sound like?’. It is a chaotic mix of nonsensical musical sequences blended with hard hitting technicality and high output intensity. “Waking Visions” has a more accessible groove to it and it flows a little more naturally on the rhythm front. The lead accents are an intense flurry of activity which compliments the insane vocal roaring and the track has a real heavy sound in its verse and chorus sections. The melodic flow and sounds of the fretless bass help round out the track, giving a deep and warmer low end to the harsh bite of the guitar and vocals, and honestly, I really enjoyed this track!
“Sun Damage” opens up with some more dynamic clean work. The subtle reverb and delay on the guitars helps them chime out over the sustained string samples beneath and it helps build an uneasy air of tension which is predictably shattered round the halfway point of the track when it explodes to life with screams, crushing riffs and cutting angular leads which spiral out of control and create a dissonant hellscape which might need something psychoactive to straighten out and make sense of. “Zither” is quicker to get into things. The fretless bass does its work under the thick stabs of guitar and it’s a jarring attack of heavily distorted madness from start to finish. “Never Argue With An Idiot” is a 1:20ish bolt of chaos. Piercing Jazz chords, mindless twisting guitar sequences and blistering drums provide the perfect chaos for the intense vocal screams, and strangely enough, it helps set up the next track, the phenomenal “Withering Away and Laughing”. The longest and most intense track on the album, it’s synth-loaded start quickly transitions into an intense explosion of experimental technical metal with no reprieve in the first half of the track. Towards the middle, it tails off into a dramatic, tension building string section arrangement which reaches a crescendo with a ferocious vocal roar and some big groove riffs.
“Social Contracts” is another short, sharp stab of intensity featuring more tremendous vocal work and the bass work is nicely done, giving another melodic quality to the jarring attack of the guitars. This odd and jarring feel is carried over into “The Gift of Failure”. Its intro is an uncomfortable sounding angular run which finally transitions into something more palatable with its experimental groove riffing. The pounding chug allows for the drums to lay out some impressive fills and there are moments where the delivery outside of the entropic leads sounds like something which can get its hooks into you for brief moments before the chaotic current of the track rips it away from you.
Closing the track is “Moving Gently Towards The Grave”. With its rise and fall synth opening being joined eventually by the band proper, it continues to rise and fall in the background, providing a bright gentle current to act as a counterpoint to the slower, heavy groove. This equilibrium is maintained up til shortly after the halfway point when the band speeds up, the screams begin and the intensity is raised up enough to be extremely noticeable before it eases back into the previous dynamic, proving itself to be a strange fit for an ending track, but at the same time, seeming like a natural conclusion to the musical delivery of the release as a whole.
I won’t lie, “Shame” is an experimental technical metal release which is not for those who aren’t prepared to sit there and try to work out just what they are hearing exactly. I’ve had this for over two weeks now and I’m still trying to make sense of the nonsensical on this release, but in terms of the compositions, the musical delivery and those moments of magic which seem to spark it to life and everything briefly seems to line up, it is something which doesn’t quite click for me yet.
(6/10 Fraggle)
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