Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Shutdown
Release: 2009
Duration: 24:00
Rating: 4.5/5
Shutdown is a young heavy metal band from Nova Gorica, and in 2010 they’re proving that heavy metal, which had its best years in the golden eighties, can still live and breathe with full lungs today, as long as skilled fingers and young minds with the right ideas get their hands on it. The guys mapped out their path from the very start of the band – win over the crowd with energetic shows on stages all across Slovenia – but eventually the time comes when that crowd wants something concrete to take home, a recording they can enjoy anywhere, anytime. Shutdown have taken care of that with their first demo recording, which delivers four heavy metal wreckers in a good twenty minutes.
A goofy intro in true Shutdown style presents the heart and soul of Shutdown – playing dynamic, lively heavy metal in an old-school spirit. And even though cassettes had their charm, you have to admit that worn-out, twisted, hissing tapes got on a lot of people’s nerves. Well, the Shutdown “cassette” doesn’t hiss or skip at all, and these young heavy metal warriors prove that youth is no measure of quality, because the demo serves up a real volcanic eruption of outstanding heavy metal that not even the genre’s up-and-coming names in its birth pangs would be ashamed of. That Shutdown are dead serious is proven right away by the opening track Valkira, which swaggers with hugely melodic and ultra-catchy riffs. The central riff is especially well thought out, and together with phenomenal rattling, “groovy” bass lines and drums full of old-school heavy metal fills, it rocks like a heavy metal version of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. It’s all clearly complemented by Egzi’s high-flying vocals, full of youthful rage and fervor, yet also full of nuanced vocal lines that sound great in the melodic verses sung in the mid-range. The peak is undoubtedly reached in the damn punchy, instantly catchy choruses, and the cherry on top is the obligatory falsetto screams, which are executed perfectly. Given Egzi’s youth, the vocals can only develop further and reach an enviable level of the best heavy metal vocals in the country, which he’s already damn close to. Shutdown show an incredible sense of melody all the way to the end of the demo, guiding us through varied guitar lines, dynamic riffs and spectacular solos, a grooving bass, singable choruses you grasp in an instant, and a constant feeling that the guys really have a handle on composing and arranging songs. Despite the relative simplicity of the songs, built on the verse-chorus-verse formula, this seemingly simple structure hides everything that puts Shutdown among the best heavy metal bands in the country – rich structures, carefully thought-out guitar lines, and a seriously good fit between the bass and guitar lines and the vocals. Shutdown also deliver a nice surprise on the lyrics front, especially with the lyrics of the track Križarji, which is written entirely in Slovenian and feels like it was cast to fit the music. Proof for everyone who claims you can’t sing metal in your native language because it’s supposedly not melodic enough!
The demo just gushes with the unique heavy metal energy that Shutdown have no shortage of. While the old heavy metal tomcats are slowly running out of breath, Shutdown boldly prove that the genre is very much alive, and it’s commendable that the guys went for a melodic approach to making music, one that’s forgotten these days in the flood of thrash, death and more extreme metal genres, or watered down in a herd of interchangeable power metal bands, as alike as two peas in a pod. Shutdown play heavy metal with balls, adding the “fucking awesome” moments of hard rock. And this formula works devilishly well!
Lineup
Egzi – vocals
Dominjo – guitar
Murva – guitar
Pejc – drums
Dafo – bass
Production
Shutdown
Tracklist
1. Intro
2. Valkira
3. Križarji
4. She is
5. Heavy Metal Queen
6. Virginia
