Friday, January 9, 2015

Album Review: "Death Is Righteous" by Shredhead

Death Is Righteous
Thrash metal (or speed metal) came into being after the New Wave of British Heavy Metal influenced some very metal Californians  in the early 1980's.

I'm pretty sure we all know that.

In the 90's Neo Thrash was all the rage. Or was that the 90's Thrash Revival? 

It's really hard to keep up as there's another thrash revival happening now. There are even record labels dedicated to it.

Everything is cyclical and what's once old is later new and vice versa. 

Today I'm reviewing the sophomore album from Berlin based, but Israeli by birth, metallers Shredhead. If I'm being honest, I don't think it's a very good name, but neither is The Black Keys really...or The White Stripes...and people seemed to like them ok.

Shredhead (Best Promo EVER)
Conceptually speaking, this album is all about the big sleep. Kind of cool and very metal really.

I guess this is the album Haymitch should've played for Katniss and Peta on the train?

Sonically speaking, it has that sound of the 90's Thrash guitars. Think Testament or Metallica from about then.

It's got that Mesa/Boogie sound, not the Peavey 5150. That's a welcome change... Very few bands have been able to get a guitar sound this good.

This album is full on rifftastic. The rhythm guitars just smoke. Seeing their hands must be a sight in and of itself. There are some leads, as one would expect with a name like Shredhead, but I'd not call this a shred band. 

The solos are unique and usually surprising. They never seemed to follow the path my brain laid out for them. In other words, they don't sound like anything else out there and that's awesome. Somebody's gotta be Marco Polo....and their use of harmony was a great touch.

Vocally, this falls between Metallica and Sepultura. Were it a bit more brutal it'd be full on death metal. If it were a bit less, we'd be headed towards power metal. Think of the vocal stylings of Adrenaline Mob.

There is no star on this record. This is a band powered by what must be a single brain. Heavy. Groovy. Dark.

Release: 1/12/15
Genre: Thrash Metal
Label: Mighty Music




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