OBSCURE TERROR: SHEVER
Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 3:20pm by Grim Kim
Hello MetalSucks! I’m back again, to your collective delight/chagrin/indifference. Here are a few
things I’m currently obsessed with — one old, one new, and one, well, Swiss? I’m especially excited
about the new sHever record. Weird, female-fronted doomy bands are all the rage right now, and
these broads deserve to be fawned over just as much as Witch Mountain or Royal Thunder (if not
even more, if you like it heavier). Give them a shot.
Besides these, I’ve been spinning Revenge’s discography (holy fuck, their cover of Bathory’s “War” is
ace!), endless Barbatos, and lots of Waylon Jennings. What’ve you been listening to?
SHEVER
After seeing these ladies absolutely stun the crowd at Roadburn 2010 as part of the Tom G. Warriorcurated
Only Death Is Real event, I was smitten, and rushed to their merch table to buy as much
merch as my frail American wallet could handle (fucking Euros, man – that exchange rate can get
brutal). I didn’t hear much about them after that, but luckily for me, a chance forum post by Totalrust
Music informed me that the Israeli label had recently released sHever’s second LP. Even luckier:
Rituals was worth the wait. The album offers up fifty minutes’ worth of crawling, cavernous
blackened death/doom, with Alexandra’s hoarse, guttural howls complemented by backing screams
from bassist/violinist Nadine and guitarist Jessica and interspersed with unsettling whispers and
witchy invocations. The riffs are slow, distorted, and sludgy, the drums sparse and ritualistic, with the
bass tone rumbling menacingly underneath. The self-proclaimed “witch doom” quartet have been
kicking around their native Switzerland for the past eight years, appearing at high profile festivals like
Roadburn and Doom Shall Rise and releasing a handful of demos and albums, without attracting the
kind of attention that is their due. Here’s hoping this new opus will send them screeching out into
the public eye. Fans of Mythic, Derketa, and Otesanek, prepare to lose your shit.
