By Jonny Bakes
One of the perks of being able to delve through the influx of album releases to find my next aural pleasure is that I can scratch my itch for certain genres, and today I’ve got a real itch for some melodic death metal. This genre pairs the brutality of death metal with intricate melodies often resulting in some real passionate music which is exactly what I’m looking for in this release from Finnish metallers Shadecrown.
Shadecrown have been relatively quiet on the scene, having just one full length album to their name released back in 2016. That leaves them in that horridly difficult position of trying to follow up that debut album which is often the make or break moment for bands. Will they continue the momentum, or will they flop like a date that has had too much whiskey? The short answer to that is that they’ve well and truly kept that pace to deliver a pretty great melodeath album with ‘Riven’.
‘Riven’ is an album that comes across as very emotionally driven, Shadecrown have really managed to convey that raw emotion through the music in a similar way to the likes of Killswitch Engage. It’s full of highs and lows with a combination of hauntingly poignant messages, and some real bleak home truths. The raw heaviness that dominates the album is interspersed with quieter instrumentals that utilise both acoustic guitars and piano to offer some contrast to the harshness of the vocals throughout. There’s clearly some strong influences from fellow countrymen Insomnium, who are quite possibly one of my favourite Melodic Death bands so that suits me just fine.
From the very outset, the album lures you in with the haunting piano solo before really kicking into the opening track ‘Until the End’. This track has quickly become one of my favourites on the album, with its combination of catchy guitar hooks and lyrics that really manage to invoke some emotions in me. Particularly standing out is the line “why do we lie to ourselves, we are all born to die”, it seemingly came out of nowhere to deliver a suckerpunch right to my gut. The introductory riff somehow manages to be both upbeat and melancholic delivering a real contrast of emotion which continues throughout the song. With these qualities, ‘Until the End’ has rightfully earned itself a spot in my rotation of favourite tracks!
It’s not alone though, as there are more standout tracks on this album in the forms of ‘Ghost I Mourn’ and ‘Hate Reflected’ to name but a few. The former starts out with a solid heavy riff with plenty of balls to it coming from that rhythm section and again this deals with some pretty raw emotions (in case that wasn’t obvious from the title). Whereas ‘Hate Reflected’ seems to have a far more aggressive feel to it, yet still portrays some positive messages about spending time alone to learn to be yourself. This track seriously kicks though, with some fantastic shredding, blasting drumbeats and is certainly another that I’ll keep coming back to.
So overall, I think this is a great followup for Shadecrown, and to put it simply I’d say that this album is what you would get if you let Jesse Leach write lyrics for Insomnium. And for me, that absolutely hits the spot particularly considering my current by melodic death cravings. Shadecrown are really showing that they have what it takes to make some waves in the scene, and I’m hoping those waves send them in the direction of the Über Kingdom!
- ‘Riven’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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