Shades of Remembrance has been around Cleveland’s metal scene since the late ’00s. The virtuostic quartet — vocalist/bassist Elm Burgess, lead guitarist Al Bauhof, drummer Todd Martin, and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Calvin Burgess — with wide-ranging musical taste released its debut CD Voices in my Mind in 2010.
It’s now got its second, Veil, in hand. It will celebrate the CD release with a show at Parma’s Rock City Tap House. Global Warning, Venomin James and Bold Faced Lies open. It’s a free, all-ages show.
Veil is a powerful album that signals its serious intent off the bat, opening with a sound bite from the movie Shadowland, where writer/theologian C.S. Lewis wonders about whether God intends suffering. The 14 tracks that follow grapple with intense ideas and emotions, signaled by song titles like “Bad Memory,” “Disarray,” and “False Intentions.”
Three things make SoR stand out from the pack: their ability to write memorable songs, their musical dexterity, and their diverse influences that produce a shifting sonic landscape within the boundaries of metal. They have the ability to be crushingly heavy and melodic — almost pretty — at the same time on tunes like “Perpetual Lies.”
They contrast the rampaging speed metal of “Hatred” with “Bish”’s soaring prog feel and acoustic classical guitar-style break. “Let Her Pray” is an epic ballad reminiscent of Metallica, while “4/19/93” adds rap to their sound and does so much more gracefully than the pedestrian rap/metal which once dominated the scene. The album closes with an aggressive cover of Def Leppard’s “Wasted.”
Cleveland’s metal scene — probably its strongest — too often doesn’t get the props it deserves. SoR’s Veil reminds us once again how many fine bands the genre has produced, and continues to produce, here.
http://www.shadesofremembrance.com/
