Shever, or shEver, hails from Switzerland – the homeland of the metal legends Celtic Frost – and they
represent the genre of doom metal. Rituals is Shever’s second full-length, and, on this album, the allfemale
doom quartet explore the bleak, yet groovy, universe of sludge doom.
What characterizes this album is primarily a bleak minimalism which is engendered in the form of
simple heavy drum beats and guitar figures which are mesmerizingly simple, yet very powerful. This
minimalism is especially prevalent in tracks like ‘Delirio’ and ‘Je Suis Née’, the former of which
features a strangely aggressive and simple coda which is repeated considerably many times, while
the latter builds on a number of crushingly heavy and groovy, but simple and bleak, doom-laden riffs.
Amidst the bleakness, warm and almost pleasant guitar leads pop up, as in the case of one of the
passages in ‘Delirio’. Indeed, almost everything about this album is cold – even the clean-guitarred
intros of ‘Ritual of Chaos’ and ‘Souls Colliding’ send chills of despair down the spine of the listener.
And, of course, the more classic doom metal oriented riffage in ‘(You Are) The Mirror’ capture all that
is good about doom metal.
The production has almost the same sort of steel cold bleakness to it as Darkthrone’s golden age
releases, probably because of the use of reverb with the guitars. Interestingly, however, Shever’s
bass actually has a warm sound to it, which provides a nice and heavy bottom which, in my opinion,
is perhaps one of the most important aspects of Shever’s sound on this album.
While emphasizing minimalism, Shever are by no means poor musicians. In fact, their ability to really
build up songs and gradually increase the intensity, as in the massive ‘Souls Colliding’ reflects their
instinct for writing compelling, yet scary, doom metal. The vocals are primarily harsh, but at times
the growls and screams are supplemented with an almost introspect 70s psychedelic rock type of
singing which, needless to say, suits the atmosphere of the heavy and doom-laden, repetitive music
on this album.
In the more sludgy and deliberately unpleasant end of the doom metal spectrum, Shever’s Rituals is
not for everyone. But, if you like your doom metal bleak and truly doom-laden, then chances are that
you will really enjoy this album – especially, the three last tracks are no less than phenomenal.
Added: December 1st 2012
Reviewer: Kim Jensen
Score: 5
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