Shattered – New Atlantis

[schema type=”review” name=”Shattered – New Atlantis” author=”Juho Karila” pubdate=”2015-09-01″ ]

Founded in 2013, Shattered is a technical death metal band from Würzburg, Germany. Each member of them have a long history in music and that is the first impression I hear when listening to “New Atlantis”. From the very beginning, we’re given 45 minutes of very complex and incredibly tight package of death metal hammering with obscure song structures and arrangements to test the concentration in order to understand what is really going on.

“Bipolar Disorder” opens the album with a short synth intro before we’re greeted by precisely calculated guitar riff and blast beat hammering, which is broken only by occasional short fills when the tension eases for a brief moment before we go again. The complexity of guitar melodies and riffs are the benchmarks of the genre and on top of all the constant pounding they make the band stand up to their peers. If you listen to very carefully, you can hear moments where the bass has been given a lead too, the band sounds like Obscura but more straightforward.

“Ignite the Dawnshard” continues on the same path with almost constant blast beat pounding, which seems to be their thing and every now and then it feels numbing. Though, only for a moment before the song takes a new direction that makes you listening to more with eager anticipation of what happens next. Towards the end, we’re given much awaited chance to relax as the band breaks down into an athmospheric interlude a very melodic lead before returning to the full blown hammering.

Despite the aggressive start, “Into the Shattering” is one of the more melodic songs in the album; and also easier to approach. Once getting past the band’s trademark fast paced guitar lead and drumming, the song turns more to melodeath and vividly reminds me of Finnish melodic death metal band Hateform with the groovy crunch. Once again, we hear a short but nice ambient-ish interlude with clean guitar towards the end.

While “New Atlantis” has been made with precision and expertise, it relies heavily only on a few things that are the fast drum bombarding and highly complex guitar riffs and melodies. There isn’t much diversity between the songs and the biggest difference is small nuances on how the riffs are delivered, making the band groove really cool at times. In other times, the band reminds of Immortal by sounding quite black metal, like in songs “Despise the Living” and “The Fall of Hyperion.”

The album features also a couple of instrumental songs, “Trapped in Everlasting Dreams” being the first of them and probably the calmest track of “New Atlantis.” With piano and clean guitar melodies, and more progressive melodeath feel, it’s probably a conscious choice to put a “lighter” song in the middle and it works in a way that makes me longing for more. However, the song still sadly turns into blast beats before the end and comes in too late.
The second one is a completely clean “As Atlas Reached the Stars” which sounds, in its ambient melodiness, something Wintersun could do. Sadly the track is clearly a filler with clocking just over a minute and not being in line with the rest of the songs.

Shattered’s debut album is a complex and a very exhausting package to get into, yet rewarding the same time. There are many layers, all of which adds something to the songs and reveals small details to make the songs seem more complete with each time you listen to them. If you’re into this type of metal, I highly recommend checking them out but after 45 minutes of almost constant blast beats it leaves feeling numb like you had just got ran over by a steamroller or you’ve tried to run a marathon.

More dynamics and guitar harmonics and we would speak of a band that would be ready to take a tackle on giants of the genre like Obscura, The Acacia Strain, The Black Dahlia Murder etc.

Lineup:
Ryan – Guitar

Session:
Michael – Vocals
Yaroslav – Bass, Vocals
Jonas – Drums

Tracklist: 1. Bipolar Disorder 2. Ignite the Dawnshard 3. Into the Shattering 4. Despise the Living 5. Ancient 6. The Fall of Hyperion 7. Trapped in Everlasting Dreams 8. The Grid 9. The Orbits Around 10. Into Archadia 11. As Atlas Reached the Stars 12. Nereids 13. From Distant Shores 14. Amnesia

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