(TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut offering from a Russian band called Evil Shine.)
The Russians are currently producing some of the most interesting music in the metal landscape. The way the scene has exploded in recent years (and especially in recent months) has been quite astounding. I now have another excellent discovery from the land of the former Red Army: Evil Shine.
I recommended the video for the song “I Hate Your Kind” to Islander, and he included it in a post not too long ago. Evil Shine play a style of primal, weighty, beefy, groove metal with a very tribal characteristic to it. This stuff is an acquired taste, but my opinion after several listens to their debut The Evil One is that this is some intense, brutal, terrifying shit.
The opening instrumental simply called “Intro” is a haunting piece that has the oddity of being done using really shitty MIDI. And it works. It’s a very creepy, eerily foreboding piece that leads into the true opener “The Primal Hunger” excellently. In that song, the riffs and drums sound like they’re rising up from a swamp or a sewer full of liquefied human flesh. As it unfolds, the sound is that of a grotesque giant with a jackhammer for one fist and a sledgehammer for the other coming straight at you. Continue reading »