Eight years after their tragic break-up sent shock waves through the British metal landscape. Shields are back with their second studio album, Death & Connection. But with this long of a break, it makes you wonder if the band have anything left in the tank. As you press play on the album, you’re greeted to an almost five minute spoken word poem piece backed by howling winds and an increasingly never-ending hate filled rant. Hardly a prelude to the explosive comeback you’d expect. That comes next in the form of ‘Abuser’ with the band exploding into fury as Joe Edwards’ vocals strike with venomous precision. New drummer Alastair Wain proves his worth with a flurry of blast beats and at times slower out of time hits that make ‘Abuser’ complex and inhospitable.
Then, the rest of the album follows. A shallow attempt to come back and sit upon the throne they once inhabited, however, they fall far from reaching the height they obtained back in 2018. The album is a copy and paste formula without a shred of originally weaved into the mix. ‘Kill’ has one of the worst spoken-rap passages in modern music that feels like it was added at the last second, which is then backed up by some tacky auto-tuned enhanced clean vocals. While this isn’t inherently a bad thing, as it can help to boost backing vocals in some capacity, but here it feels lifeless and oozes second hand embarrassment. Samuel Finney’s guitar sound, while crushingly heavy, is empty with nary a riff in sight, which is a shame because we know he’s capable of greater things.
While Shields do try and become ambitious on ‘Lacerate’, the attempt falls flat which is a huge shame, as Edwards produces some horrific sounding vocals on this track that become buried by the mix in some places behind the bland metalcore chugs.
Behind the bland songs are two additional interludes, ‘Brother’s Lament’ & ‘Loser’. Two spaces on the album that didn’t need to be filled, as they provide nothing for the album and don’t even transition into the songs following them, they just end. And speaking of ending, the final song on the album,’ Miss Me’ is an emotional tribute to former member George Christie, who’s sudden passing in 2018 spelled the original ending of the band. Despite the many flaws of this record, it’s a genuinely beautiful way of remembering his memory and actually a brilliant song.
In all though, whilst Death & Connection is a lyrically powerful album, and clearly one the band needed to get off their chests, it’s pretty much void of creativity bare some sparse highlights. They’ve unfortunately created an empty shell in which to portray the music they love.