This week we have Portland’s based band The Shrike album review. The band was named after an iconic character from the “Hyperion Cantos”, a science fiction novel series and was formed back between late 2012 and early 2013, by Matt Sipes (bass), Jamie Lynn (vocals and violin), Steven "The Craw" Hall (guitar) and Darren "Pitbull" Linder (drums).
After almost two years of songwriting the band decided to head to the Opal Studio, up in Portland, to take the music to the next stage of commitment. The year of 2014 would not end without “The Shrike” debut full-length being recorded with a little help from producer and mixing engineer Kevin Hahn.
The tastes and musical influences of each one of “The Shrike” founding members of are wide and variegated. They range from the classic Slavic composer Leos Janacek to Slayer; from Rush to Dead Can Dance though one can not actually find evidence of either Janacek or Dead Can Dance in their work. The Shrike is above all effectively influenced by led Zeppelin, Heart, Rush, Kansas and Montrose.
The problem is that this risk to over simplify their sound. Due to previously mentioned variegation of individual musical influences we are confronted with a much richer tapestry of sonic intertwining than just the mere hard and heavy rock formula.
It is precisely because of their inner diversity which constitutes the band’s most valuable asset considering that they don't play only by the hard rock book of golden rules (if there is any) that their compositions and creativeness finds its berth on pretty eclectic sources which allow them to properly claim that they are building a sound of their own and not only mimicking the classic hard and heavy blast.
The Shrike has a non-mainstream feature that is the use of the electric violin and this peculiarity contributes to add to their music a Celtic turn, a gipsy feel, an eastern touch of class to some of their songs resulting in a pleasant combination with both the top-notch guitar riffs plus the killer rhythm section that, after having listened to their album more than a dozen times, enables us to consider that “The Shrike” are indeed far from purely being a hard rock band and decidedly not a heavy metal one.
The Shrike is much closer to what some 70s so called hard rock bands did and the way some of them slowly headed towards a certain prog-rock and folk rock experimentation just like Uriah Heep and Nazareth have done than the opposite.
The Shrike debut album best kept secret builds upon not only on the undeniably good rhythm section filled with energetic and elaborate drumming, along with some vigorous bass lines that apart a Slayer and Slipknot temptation seem quite indebted of blues-jazzy and funky rhythmic patterns.
But there is also a very good guitar work with a rather pretty cool set of riffs and some well crafted chord progressions and some poisonous soloing that spread throughout the bunch of songs. Last but not least there is that portion of additional magic powders provided by a thrilling electric violin that inevitably pushes the band to the above mentioned Eastern/Celtic-Irish/Gypsy groove.
Finally, a brief note about the vocals which are undeniably good. Jamie Lynn has a powerful sweet voice and nice timbre though I doo disagree with the Ann Wilson/Pat Benatar comparison because there is a clear difference of vocal range and release between the three of them.
In overall terms “The Shrike” first long play has a good set of songs from which I’d highlight the stand out ones: The Return, Fall in Line and Shark. As a final word, it pleases me to say that the album was a nice aural experience, it denotes that there is really good individual as well collective musicianship which turns out to be a great working basis for the next album (besides the fact that Matt Sipes has parted ways with the band and was replaced by Roya Hellbender, whom I am sure will keep the bass lines blasting).
In any case this album left me with the feeling that the band is still thriving for an aesthetic/conceptual definition of their musical choices which explain the great variety of influences and details all along the album. This album is a good starting point, a good draft for the future, and we have to expect that the band can reach a higher evolutionary musical stage.
If I could give any word of advice to The Shrike I would definitely say that they should focus on either hard and heavy or prog-rock or just classic rock but avoid mixing them all because such a choice would ruin the uniqueness they seek for. I truly foresee great potential in this Portland four piece, so i do expect that they can step forward in style.
INDIEVOTION rating for The Shrike self-titled debut album: 7.0/10