Envenomed – The Walking Shred
3 min read
Band: Envenomed
Title: The Walking Shred
Label: El Puerto Records
Release date: July 5, 2019
Country: Australia
Format reviewed: Digital Promo
There has been an absolute mammoth wave of wicked metal releases over the past few months. It can be hard to take it all in, so instead of trudging forward I decided to look backwards to see if I missed anything in the chaos. This is how I came across ENVENOMED, a straight to the point heavy metal band with some dialed-in power metalish vocals and an intense groove and heavy as hell pace to the instrumentals. With their first full release in 2014 and a few EPs under their belt, “The Walking Shred” is the band’s second full length album and latest attempt to sever your spine. Delivering high energy riff driven madness backed up some seriously powerful vocals, ENVENOMED deliver some highly palatable metal that will satisfy the hordes of metalheads already listening to bands like Trivium, All That Remains, Nevermore, Lamb of God, and even more mainstream thrash and hard rock bands in the Metallica spectrum.
The album starts with and introduction track aptly named “The Walking Shred” as the fog begins to lift and the zombies rip their way up from the earth and descend upon your ears. Things really get started though with “Abandon Hope” which explodes with furious shredding before cranking up the melody a bit in the later sections. Followed up by “The Dead” and “Aware”, ENVENOMED are hell bent for destruction with an onslaught of thrashy groove and impressive solo work that really adds a lot to their songs.
“Fate Closes The Door” is a serious change of pace, with a deep clean opener which at first comes across as a moment of serenity before the devastation to come… This is not the case however, with the track turning out to be a blazing 7 minute ballad. It’s still heavy but it was not what I expected after the first few songs. While a bit out of place it’s still a fine display of the ENVENOMED’s passion and versatility.
“Rebellion” gets things back on track, returning the fast pace and crushing groove to our voyage through the apocalypse. “The Walking Shred” hits its stride mid-album with these Australian demons keeping the throttle pinned with the horde hot on our heels! “Through The Cold” is without a doubt one of the best songs I’ve heard from this band. Exploding with a relentless crusade of melodic riffage, the track features some almost melodic death metal territory shredding at times and a stronger heavier vocal style than others. ENVENOMED capitalize on the momentum with hooky as hell choruses and again some intricate drumming and wicked solowork to seal the deal.
“The Haunting”, “All That Remains”, and “Sacrifice”, continue with incredible vigor and ferocity full of headbanging madness. The tracks each have their awesome moments but overall the drumming and guitars keep things pretty straight forward. They sneak in a heavy yet true to form cover of “Are You Gonna Go My Way” before ending things off on a similar tangent with “Metal United”.
ENVENOMED have a heavy groove capable of reanimating a corpse. Their amazing solo work and wicked hooks are what make “The Walking Shred” so good. Most of the progressions and instrumentals are straight forward but they follow a formula that has proven effective time and time again by many other bands. The vocals are consistently impressive throughout the tracks adjusting the tone to match the song at hand. With some awesome cover art and some added star power in their ranks to help keep them in your memory, these metalheads have provided a worthy follow up to their early material. Enjoy your new soundtrack to the apocalypse, and this time things don’t seem so bleak! 7.5/10 Metal Yeti
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