Style: Stoner Metal/ Doom (Harsh vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: Kentucky, US
Release date: 15 October, 2021
Since joining the Progressive Subway team, my fellow writers have been trying to get me to broaden my musical horizons. Well, now they have got me testing the waters with Shi, a stoner doom group from Kentucky. I could appreciate a bit of stoner rock and metal, but doom was completely new to me. Now having listened to Shi’s new album Basement Wizard am I changed man? Is doom a new flavor that I crave? Will Basement Wizard be my perfect introductory doom album? Stay tuned to find out!
Normally I like to have a casual listen to any new music before getting into serious mode. I like to play an album on my way to work, while I am at work, or when I am playing video games. I did the exact opposite with Basement Wizard. I got all set up with my headphones on, door closed, and lyrics open right in front of me. I hit play on the first song and…almost immediately I thought to myself “This was a mistake”. Those vocals are so strange sounding, almost as if the vocalist is losing his voice mid scream. They are aggressive and throaty, but have a secondary soft breathiness to them. A couple verses later I discovered that “Best Laid Plans” is highly repetitive, and it was really starting to bore me. I only made it through the first track and was already defeated. At this point I just hoped there would be some redeeming factor down the line.
With reluctance I stayed attentive for the second track. I made it about a minute in and couldn’t take it anymore. Seventy five BPM and the same slow, sludgy riff over and over just couldn’t keep me hooked. I let the music continue playing in the background, but I switched my focus to some video games. I booted my game up and then all the sudden I hear an awesome guitar solo, with a tempo much faster than the 75 BPM from earlier. Things are starting to get good, finally!
The title track “Basement Wizard” is one of the better tracks on the album. It is a bit more varied than some of the others that kind of just chug along. It has some variety of riffage and a good amount of faster sections, like the two guitar solos in the intro and outro. A narrator comes in halfway through the song to help paint a picture of creepy dark magic that is going on in the song, and if you are reading the lyrics as you listen like I did, you will notice that this song has more inspired lyrics than the rest on the album. The other songs are soaked in straightforward gloomy and doomy vibes, leaving me wanting a little bit more.
Unfortunately, in a turn of events my favorite song on the album is the interlude. It does it’s job well as an intermission, but other than that it makes no sense to me. It doesn’t match the album’s style at all, like AT ALL. It is a saloon style instrumental western song complete with whistling and a glockenspiel, and I actually think it’s super cool. I wish they would have implemented some of this western stuff into the rest of the album, and to be clear I am not looking for a full blown western. I think it would have been creative if they just added some elements of the interlude into the rest of the album. Another little piece I loved was the trumpet solo in “High Praise”, why does this happen only here and nowhere else in Basement Wizard? I would have absolutely loved some more of that jazzy action in the other tracks.
So, was Shi’s Basement Wizard my perfect intro to doom metal? No, it wasn’t and I would argue that this album leans more to the stoner side, with some doom influence. The album isn’t bad at all, in fact I loved some parts of it. It had great guitar solos and some unique stuff here and there like the trumpet solo, but the entirety of the album felt too repetitive and predictable for me. Only the top tier musicians can do something so well that it is great even when done repetitively. If Shi had varied their music with a little bit more flair I think the album would feel a little more fresh and distinguished.
Recommended tracks: Basement Wizard, High Praise
Recommended for fans of: Bongzilla, Acid Witch
You may also like: Iron Monkey
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Spotify | Facebook | Bandcamp | Metal Archives
Label: Independent
Shi is:
Zach Payne (Bass)
Tyler Lewis (Drums)
Bob Lowrey (Guitars, Vocals)
Jayce (Guitar)
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