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Shiver
American Evil
Recorded, Mixed, Mastered by George Harris @ Panda Studios, Clearwater
Co-produced by Shiver and George Harris
Album artwork by Kevin Pennington, design concept by Shiver
The antidote to rap-metal has arrived. Shiver’s insidious, psychedelic horror-show riffage pulls in equal parts trance-inducing stoner rock drone, jagged slo-mo grind, punk-ass edge-of-mayhem execution, and Danzig-esque black-psyche atmosphere, carving their own niche in heavy music with little to no regard for trend or genre. Not death, not goth, not Glenn, American Evil occupies its own space somewhere between classic birth-of-metal sludge and Cathedral’s backlash to the blast-beat, suffusing a somewhat dated origin with new energy, new ideas, and contemporary society’s heart of darkness. Granted, Shiver is not for ADD sufferers – long songs, repetitive passages and similar themes rule here, and non-aficionados of the style may find this disc a tad redundant. These guys know the creepy value of that minor-key half-step, and they work it. And work it. ‘Savior’, ‘BATTR’, and ‘Dropkick’ best employ their trademark mid-tempo death-march, while the standouts ‘Low By Nature’ and ‘Shame’ break things up nicely with some bludgeoning time changes and crawling menace, respectively. A cover of ‘Children of the Grave’ hits maybe a bit too close to the mark, but the band acquit themselves nicely with the throbbing closer ‘Shaking Hands With The Devil’ and its Exorcist-sample intro. The production is great, low and thick but separating a trebly bass attack from the morass of fuzzed-out guitars. Sick of the happy, groovy heavy? Here, have this. Recommended.
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