Artist: Shai Hulud
Label:Revelation Records
Release Date: 5/20/03
Rating: 4 Skulls
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Title: That Within Blood Ill Tempered Artist: Shai Hulud Label:Revelation Records Release Date: 5/20/03
Rating: 4 Skulls |
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Reviewed by Jotun (5/20/03):
So here it is. I have been both anxiously and nervously awaiting the second full-length release by one of hardcore's most innovative and original artists - Shai Hulud. That Within Blood Ill Tempered, or by any other names their sophomore release was ever known by, was an album some may have thought would never see the light of day. A follow-up to 1997's groundbreaking Hearts Once Nourished With Hope and Compassion was said to be coming as early as 1999. Schedule problems, member changes, and a general hesitation to put early ideas to tape seemed to be the accepted reasons as to why the follow-up took so long to come about. Guitarist (and sole founding member) Matt Fox points to his personal perfectionism as being a contributing factor as well.So I began getting nervous. First when they released a new song on the band's split EP with Another Victim. The band had accepted a new singer into their ranks - usually a sure-fire way to kill a band - but Geert van der Velde showed little change in voice or lyrical influence to believe he would stray far from the oral hatred of founding singer Chad Gilbert.
That Within Blood Ill Tempered sounds like the band might have had too much time with their material. Because the line-up has seen so many changes over the years, it is possible this represents the new Shai Hulud, but most of the members are the same since the release of the aforementioned EP A Whole New Level of Sickness. The songs are much more varied than ever before and definitely give the listener a challenge. To new listeners, the challenge is hearing a totally original and innovative style that Hulud keeps to this day. To old listeners, the challenge is to understand the road that led to this material and truly deciding where it fits in with their prior material.
The opening track "Scornful of the Motives and Virtue of Others" sounds like the evolved hatred previously heard in Sickness' "Set Your Body Ablaze". Slightly progressive in nature, but it still packs a hook to the jaw that stings and makes the eyes water. The band continues with a series of punches on "Willing Oneself To Forget What Otherwise Can't Be Forgiven," Two and Twenty Misfortunes," and "Whether to Cry or Destroy." Between these are tracks that sound like they are more influenced by Poison the Well-type melody, such as the spoken verses on "The Consummate Dragon" or "Being Exemplary." These tracks, along with "Given Flight By Demon's Wings" are tracks that I have a hard time imagining them performing live - where the intensity and emotion of their music has always flourished.
Overall, the whole album is slightly more based in melody than the way Compassion was based in mid-tempo riffs with natural breakdowns and underlying, supporting melody. Van der Velde's lyrics take a more mature, almost literary style. Those used to Gilbert's in your face, misanthropic emotion on the band's original three releases will find the new lyrics slightly disappointing, but not to the point where it drastically takes anything away from the overall product.
What more can I say? Shai Hulud is one of the few bands that has genuinely tapped into my personal emotions and hatred of all that's unjust and unaccountable in this world. I gave the new album more time to grow on me than I would have any other before reviewing it, simply because Shai Hulud is the type of band that deserves a true and complete analysis before an opinion can be rendered. Overall, That Within Blood Ill Tempered is a good album. It should continue to grow on me and, over time, some songs are sure to become a part of me the way all of their earlier material did.
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