Staff Reviews

Shield Your Eyes - Shield 'Em

Review by David Pott-Negrine

I salute Shield Your Eyes for challenging my prejudices and making me realise that not every band on Britain’s underground toilet circuit is shit; just most of them. »

User reviews

• 8/10 by sartana
• 10/10 by AudioAntihero

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shield em is the second album by visceral london-based hardcore/math/blues trio shield your eyes, released jointly by gravid hands and saddam hussein records. it was written in three months, mostly whilst touring their self-titled debut. taking cues from now-obscure progressive blues albums such as on the boards by taste and raw sienna by savoy brown, the deliberately hurried approach forced the band to go with their initial instincts and gut feelings. the three-day recording session was essentially an extended gig, with the band and their amplifiers together in the same room. first and second takes were chosen, with many instrumental parts being spontaneously altered on the fly. these writing and recording processes have produced a bruised and ragged album. stef's beautiful-ugly vocal melodies and barbed lyrics are lacerated by his searing guitar work, underpinned by toby's warm bass tones and rattled by henri's fractured, phrenetic drumming. henri is a keen fan of warp-style drill'n'bass, and his parts frequently come across like mitch mitchell cut up by aphex twin as he leads the band through dizzyingly complex rhythmic figures. shield your eyes have pulled together a startlingly broad set of influences with nonchalance and ease to create an album which is both instantly-gratifying and incredibly complex. 'genre-defying' is a phrase that's flung about so lightly these days, but shieldem is a dizzying mix of contradictions which cannot be summarized with an easily-digestible label or tag line.
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