If we are all going to burn in hell or be the playthings of the darkest forces then Shroud Eater may have come up with the perfect soundtrack with new two-track EP Face The Master. Like a demonic covenant between sludge, doom, and occult metal, the Florida hailing band’s sound is a web of ravenous melodic intent and riff laden ferocity. As evidenced on the new encounter it is also voraciously predatory, greedily devouring ears on its way to ultimately seducing the senses.
Face The Master follows the band’s acclaimed Dead Ends EP of 2013, an attention grabbing marker for Shroud Eater after the earlier exploits of a self-titled EP debut in 2009 and their well-received first album ThunderNoise two years later. Re-energised with a new line-up since that release, band and Face The Master roar from the first second never relenting until the last, easily showing why Shroud Eater has been compared to the likes of Kylesa, High on Fire, and Acid King but equally instilling another step forward in their own distinct and intensive sound.
The EP’s title track opens with a sample from the 1979 TV movie Salem’s Lot, the voice of James Mason instantly luring in attention and imagination before riffs venomously cascade over the senses. The hellacious clutches of rhythms are similarly an inescapable onslaught, the hefty swings of drummer Davin Sosa primal bait and an uncompromising intrusion backed by the almost slavering bestiality of the basslines crafted by Janette Valentine. The riffs and rugged grooves expelled by guitarist Jean Saiz similarly show no mercy whilst both of the ladies vocals unite to savagely entrance body and emotions with hellish revelry. It is a thrilling and compelling mix, a track which is almost flirtatious with its searing melodic endeavour and danger loaded intrigue but as its sound a predator in character and intensity.
Face The Master is enough to wax lyrical about the EP but is swiftly backed by the brooding nature and consumption of House of Endings. If it is possible, the song is slightly lighter than its predecessor in that it has a more inviting swing to its gait, though that is tempered by the sonic bellows and the dark almost malevolent hearted tones of the bass. The guitar of Saiz sculpts a terrain of snarling almost rabid riffs which prowls song and the senses whilst simultaneously casting a spell of acidic and sultry melodic enterprise as intoxicating as it is piercing. The track, as the first, consumes body and thoughts, igniting and exhausting both with sonic invention and intensive energy respectively.
Shroud Eater maybe already drawing references to the metal giants already mentioned but on the evidence of the outstanding Face The Master, they will be standing by their sides very soon.
Face The Master is available from April 7th via Primitive Violence Records & Visual on regular and special-edition cassette, and digitally @ http://shroudeater.bandcamp.com/album/face-the-master
Upcoming Shroud Eater tour dates:
Wednesday April 22 – Savannah, GA @ The Jinx
Thursday April 23 – Raleigh, NC @ The Maywood
Friday April 24 – Philly, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
Saturday April 25 – NYC, NY @ St. Vitus
Sunday April 26 – Washington DC @ TBA
Monday April 27 – Wilmington, NC @ TBA
Tuesday April 28 – Charleston, SC – “Tunnel of Lust” House Show
https://www.facebook.com/shroudeater http://www.shroudeaterrocks.com/
RingMaster 07/04/2015
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