Half a decade has passed since the last Shaman’s Harvest album, but this follow-up to 2017’s Red Hands Black Deeds has definitely been worth the wait. Rich in atmosphere, emotion and detail, the level of songcraft is truly impressive, with huge riffs allied to singer Nathan Hunt’s resonating and soulful baritone drawl to create tracks of real weight and power.
Tracks like Under Your Skin, Toe The Line and Flatline are down-tuned earworms that instantly lodge themselves in the memory, while Voices goes for the classic spooky-low-key-verse-and-huge-chorus formula.
Easily the best track, however, is Lilith, which rides on a wonderfully dirty southern rock slide riff, followed closely by the sun-scorched heist-movie-in-four-minutes Hurricane. And then we have the dusty cinematic drone of Bird Dog, a weirdly gothic epic dripping with menace.
Hopefully it won’t be another five years before the next record.
