A little background. Spain's initial 2 week lockdown had already been in force for 1 week when the announcement came that it was to be extended, which in turn prompted me to start this page. I went about quickly throwing up 7 posts to "catch-up" with the week I had missed.
Later, I was considering posting this collection, which covers the recorded output of Scottish melodic punks Shatterhand during their first 15 years (minus a demo or two), presented as a (digital) 7 disc-set. That's a lot of music for one post, but fine for a week's worth. As such, I decided to replace those posts that I had hurriedly put up (all of which will no doubt make a reappearance at somepoint) with this one.
So, back-dated, here's the new "first" post of this page. And it's a fantastic offering, although I have to say some strange choices were made. Firstly, the inclusion of previous Best Of "Complacency is Not An Option" is pretty redundant, given all the tracks feature on other records included in the same download, although I suppose it would be a good place to start for someone unfamiliar with the band. And I wouldn't have bothered with the final, previously unreleased, "Songs From The Edge Of Society", which is merely instrumental versions of the previous record "Chaos and the Art of Dissent" plus a couple of "original versions" of songs from that record. With that all said, there is still some great stuff here.
This many releases at once can be a bit daunting if you're not familiar with any of the material, so I have tried to break 'em down below, but taken one album at a time this is simply a goldmine.
The band went on to release The Solitude of Prime Numbers EP in 2015, and final full-length The Dead Memory House in 2017, before calling time on their 20 odd years as a band last year.
𝗪𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟬), 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟭), & 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘁 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟮)
For an album that is now 20 years old, Wreckage has held up exceptionally well (the remastering that was done probably helps), and introduces what would be the mainstay of Shatterhand's sound; melodic punk riffs, a driving rhythm section, and a dichotomy of vocal styles, careening between edgier vocals (usually in the verses) and melodic catchy choruses. Planting Seeds was almost rinse & repeat, which given it came out the following year isn't too surprising, but the quality remains, and the production gets a boost. It was followed up with Bone Palace Ballet, a cracking mini-album that gave a hint of what was to come, and closes with a cover of The Replacements' "Bastards of Young".
𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟱)
This album demonstrated a marked progression in terms of more complex song structures and was a more cohesive release than what had come before, whilst retaining the essence of what had made the earlier records so enjoyable. I would humbly suggest that this record shows the band at their peak, and the beefed up production and layered guitar sounds certainly did it no harm. My personal favourite.
𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟬)
As mentioned before, this was a Best Of release and as such includes tracks from the previous releases. I still think its inclusion here is a bit odd, but if you are new to the band it certainly wouldn't be a bad place to start, although to be honest at 22 songs I personally would suggest taking your time with the individual albums to be a better way to go.
𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 (𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟮) & 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆
The final proper album in this collection is one that I was excitedly waiting for back when it was originally released, and I ended up being pretty disappointed. Something about the vocals felt off at times, and I got this general feeling of a band trying too hard, almost forcing it, and missing the mark. That's not to say that it's a bad album, but as a fan of the band I'm left wishing that I liked it more than I do. Overall it just falls flat sadly, despite some enjoyable moments here and there (check out "Brewdog Nights" for a fiddlin' good drinking sing-a-long tribute to Scotland's most successful craft brewery, or the vocal interplay in closer "Demons", for example). Instrumental versions of the songs follow with the collection-ending Songs From The Edge of Society.
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 / 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺:
Comments
Post a Comment