Since Goofle is well known here for his wide and varied music taste, I had no idea at all what to expect when he proposed this album. It could have been anything from jazz to synthpop or hip-hop to death metal. As it turns out, it's metal of some degree, and when it started I knew I was going to hate it. And I did. The first time. But strangely, as the last song played out I found myself getting into it, and the second time I ran it I was much more impressed. I've now listened to it four times and am ready to give my opinion on it.
I see others have said there's nothing special about it, and to be fair, yeah it is pretty generic. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. Not every band can be pushing the boundaries, testing the envelope and creating masterworks. For what it is, this is very competent, and I think we need to bear in mind that these Bandcamp releases are all (am I right?) self-produced and most likely self-financed, so for a band with no label behind them this is pretty professional sounding.
The singer reminds me of a slower Lemmy, though my experience of this sort of stoner/Doom is quite limited. Later he sounds like Ozzy. The guitar playing appears to be very technically proficient, and the drumming competent, though I can never distinguish a good drummer from a band one, apart from the greats like Powell, Peart, Palmer
et al. Yes I see the alliteration; wasn't intentional. I also am only now seeing for the first time that Shepherd are from India, which is not something you would realise straight away, as to my mind they sound quite American. They're obviously very popular, if the sale of their t-shirts is anything to go by. So, down to cases then.
1.
Spite pit is a good introduction to the band, crushingly heavy but with a lot of melody
2.
Turdspeak (what a hilarious name!) is just crunching, crushing, rumbling Doom at its sludgy, trudging best, and it's here that I begin to note the Ozzy sound to the vocalist's voice. It soon picks up on some fast shredding and there's a kind of Deep Purple feel there for me.
3.
Crook goes for the throat right away, big pounding, grinding riffs that seem to well up from the very bowels of the earth itself. I like the hook in the melody.
4.
Black cock of Armageddon (another great title!) is where the singer does his best Ozzy impression, but you can definitely see a sameness coming through here; there's not too much variety in the tracks, and many of them sound very similar. They're not bad, just often very alike. This one speeds up nicely at the end, with some fine shredding taking it out.
5.
Stereolithic riffalocalypse goes back to snail's pace, dragging your feet along in chains while staring ahead at the miles of desert before you and the sun burns your back pitilessly, no idea where you're being taken. Some good vocal harmonies, very bleak and morose with no real shaft of hope peeking through and nothing but misery and suffering to look forward to at the end of this long road, maybe death if you're very lucky. The song speeds up near the end, but again this is becoming something of a pattern now and does not surprise me. It does give the track a burst of needed energy though.
6.
Bog slime is back to crushing us with heavy, neutron-star-grade riffs and returns to the plodding, crawling pace of which this band appear to be most fond. Certainly some very good fretwork within the song, but again it's very close to other tracks on the album, notably
Turdspeak and
Crook. They do add in some effects, which is different at least. Now we're halfway through and on a cry of “One-two-three-four!” the tempo is kicked up again; you could almost predict what's going to happen at this point. Talk about metal by the numbers!
7.
Wretch salad (Is this not almost Sabbath's “Rat salad”?) and we're back to super-slow, draggy drony riffs with another Ozzy vocal.
8.
Stalebait: at least the titles are imaginative. I'm afraid I can't say the same about the music. Very formulaic, very basic, very generic. Which is not to say it's not good, just not particularly original. I do love the riff at the end of this though, which is I think where I got the idea this was going to be something worth looking into more, at the time.
I'm not sure if we're instigating/using a voting system, but I'd say I'd award this about 6/10 if pushed.