shEver – Panta Rhei (Self-Release). Switzerland’s heady funeral/doom sludgers shEver first slithered into my life with 2012’s excellent Rituals (released on Total Rust). The vinyl split with my German favorites Spancer only furthered my excitement for shEver’s next full outing. Panta Rhei delivers. I’m still digesting it as I didn’t get a copy until the end of the year but this album kicks. From clean desert melodies to unstoppable death/doom destruction and vile sludge riffs, one might find it hard to believe that ¾ of the band are ladies! I don’t say that because I’m sexist…I say it because I think it’s fuckin’ great the gals can make shit that’s just as heavy as us guys. The influences here veer betweenKyuss, Grief, Eyehategod, Winter and even the slower passages of Incantation (whenever the speed kicks up). I don’t have every note of this record encoded into my memory yet, so it’s still receiving a lot of plays.
