It’s easy to get down on yourself, especially when times are hard and the suffering seems to gather like the tide after an earthquake. You can find yourself buried under waves of torment, unable to gasp for air, making it feel like there’s no way up or out because of all of the suffering pulling you out to sea. There’s hope, but it’s shrouded.
It’s been a long decade since we last heard from Generation of Vipers, and certainly there had to be a lot of listeners who thought they had faded. Yet they rage back to life with “Guilt Shrine,” a fiery seven-track, 35-minute crusher that is relentless from front to back. The band’s noisy, scathing, sludgy metal edge is sharp as ever as themes including regret, pain, loss, grief, and addiction course through these beastly creations. The band—vocalist/guitarist Josh Holt, bassist Travis Kammeyer, drummer Billy Graves—pours everything they have into this creation, almost like they’re making up for lost time. At the same time, while the songs tend to center on negative experiences and the damage they cause, they leave room for hope that these trials and tribulations can be positive experiences that make one whole again.
“Joyless Grails” opens with relentless energy and sludgy power, the howls leaving scars early, the menace driving a stake through your skull. The vocals get tougher and meaner, the playing lambasting before scorching with blinding energy. “In The Wilderness” chugs hard, molten hardcore-style lava flowing, grisly shouts eating into nerve endings. The guitars char, the vocals lacerating as the band rampages to a destructive, mangling finish. “Elijah” starts with the drums coming unglued, the guitars blurring eyes as the madness sets in and spreads viciously. The power explodes as the simple, effective one-word chorus leaves bruising, the chaos ripping apart ribcages, the guitars sliding on blood slicks as the power explodes and leaves bodies buried deep in the earth.
“Lux Inversion” starts with the drums caving in skulls, howls stretching muscle, the band mashing hard as the guitars scathe and waylay before things suddenly get quiet. Whispers flutter before roars unleash the heat again, a dizzying display of brutality letting loose, the leads numbing before finally bludgeoning. “Doesn’t Mean Anything” is an instrumental piece with eerie synth, chilling bass, and humid leads, everything melting away in its waves. “A Quiet Life” has sounds clashing as harsh wails hammer, vicious and muddy strikes causing blood to flow freely, and a suddenly deliberate pace giving the band time to ground faces into the dirt. Guitars well and maul as the band takes some final shots, falling into acidic hell. The closing title track slowly drains veins, delivering a calculated pounding, speak singing letting the words fall like hail. Howls then boil as the playing takes off heads, the bruising thrashing and doing bodily damage, the guitars hanging in the air. Scathing howls tear at wounds as the pace gets grimier, noise ringing in ears until fading mercifully.
Pain, suffering, regret, and loss practically have become essential parts of many of our lives the past few years, and Generation of Vipers capture that manic torment and the struggle to be whole again on “Guilt Shrine.” It’s easy to become our own enemies and fail to get out of our own way when we try to grow, and this record details those struggles that do not have to have a bad ending. It’s great to have this band back again, and it’s clear they spent the time away dealing with emotions and downfalls only to rise again.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/generationofvipers
To buy the album, go here: https://translationloss.com/collections/generation-of-vipers
For more on the label, go here: https://translationloss.com/
Meat Mead Metal 