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Artist: SHELLSHOCK
Album: Laws of Rebellion
Year: 2007
Shellshock is an exciting so-called 'drum'n'bass metal' band from the United Kingdom. In 2005 this band released their debut E.P. 'Injected Into The Hive', which was quickly followed up by 'Laws of Rebellion' in 2007. This album was self-released worldwide with exception of Japan, in where the album turned out to become pretty succesful in short time. According to the biography, we can expect "a raw, new, unique sound engineered specifically for the 21st Century. With vocals ranging from guttural screams to rap to melodic singing, spliced n’ diced with dark drum n’ bass and punishing guitars, combined with deadly, high–velocity, energetic live performances that leave the audience screaming for more, Shellshock have set out to be different. A sound of non-conformity."
The release opens with 'Insight' - an uncompromising track including diverse vocal lines, a mixture of accessable and powerful drumming and heavy riffing, giving the song a modern attitude. 'Parallel Reality' is a song of a different matter. It switches from technical industrial metal parts to drum'n'bass parts, bounded together by recogniseable (sometimes even close to sing-a-long) vocal lines and a nu metal attitude. 'In For The Kill' follows. It comes with an experimental structure beeing blessed with excellent drum'n'bass drumming, strong and diverse riffing and both powerful and sensitive vocal lines. The variation within the track is an essential thing to mention too. 'Focus' is mostly dub influenced, with its recogniseable bass sampling and gentle programming - and brings a mix of power and accessibility on the chorus when the riffing kicks in. The vocal lines flow from rap to modern (industrial) metal style. 'Core Torsion' is a modern industrial metal track, hiding various influences from Fear Factory to Pendulum. It comes with wicked drumming, powerful riffing and wickedly powerful vocal lines which will, mixed with the various influences, probably affect a large audience. 'Ultimate Solution' follows walking that path, but is slightly more nu metal influenced. It comes with powerful riffing, diverse drumming, recogniseable clean vocal lines and a surprisinlgly cool intermezzo, mixing rap vocal lines with dubstep and breakbeat influences. 'Killers' is an instrumental intermezzo, mixing drum'n'bass with tiny touches of jungle and dubstep, to be followed by 'Outcast'. It's a fast and hyperactive track with very wicked drumming, modern and powerful riffing and diverse vocal lines melting the different elements perfectly together. The song comes with a surprisingly silent ending, that proves to be a little of an anti-climax. 'Land of Snows' is pretty much a little less than five minutes break away from the madness. Still coming with some wicked drum'n'bass drumming, the overall attitude of the track is pretty relaxing. It mixes elements from wave, ambient, breakbeat, electro and industrial metal on the chorus perfectly together to end up as a surprisingly cool sounding track. 'Brainiac' gets more and more chaotic the closer it reaches its end. It opens with modern industrial metal, to continue with soft breakbeat passages and sensitive vocal lines to an intermezzo led by accoustic guitars to end all chaotic and noisy. 'Red Mist' is a modern industrial metal track, sailing from breakbeat and synth pop passages to modern outbursting passages - both blessed with recogniseable vocal lines. The final three songs were originally released on Shellshock's debut EP 'Injected Into The Hive', and come as a bonus on this debut full-lenght. 'Association with the Times' is an accessable track, coming with easy going vocal lines and riffing blended well together with the drum'n'bass and sometimes even jungle drumming and sampling. 'Kev' comes with diverse and wicked drumming, diverse vocal lines and maybe the most wicked riff on the release. The little intermezzo gives the song a certain degree of sillyness. 'Easy Way Out' is a dub based track, with a recogniseable bassline, sampling and drumming while the outbursting chorus takes care of a certain degree of power. The three bonus tracks unfortunately come with a lesser production than the rest of the release, which is a shame - because I would love to hear these tracks with the same production.
After reading the track by track review, many people would all of a sudden understand the description mentioned in the intro - despite many different influences this is mainly drum'n'bass metal indeed. For if you don't like drum'n'bass, I don't think there's reason to panic for you still. The modern approach of songbuilding, mixed with the industrial- and nu metal influences makes this band capable of affecting a pretty wide audience. Overall the description 'Fear Factory meets Ill Nino with drum'n'bass' seems pretty fair, but there is much more in here to discover for you. For if you do like drum'n'bass, it seems obvious to me that there is no more time to waste for you. I've been told that this band is working on their next album already, lets see what surprises are awaiting us on there!
Vote: 90 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
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1. Insight
2. Parallel Reality
3. In For The Kill
4. Focus
5. Core Torsion
6. Ultimate Solution
7. Killers
8. Outcast
9. Land of Snows
10. Brainiac
11. Red Mist
12. Association with the Times
13. Kev
14. Easy Way Out
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