With articles bemoaning that rock is in crisis coming out as quickly as the Guardian culture supplement can print them, it’s always nice to find a band that proves just how wrong these deathknellers are.
Hailing from the musical melting pot of Brighton, Shrine combine the technically-refined brutality of Mastodon, the grand-scoping textures of post-rock and the angular quirkiness of early Biffy Clyro to produce a sound that leaps confidently across the boundaries of hardcore, prog-metal and math-rock whilst retaining a potent tunefulness.
With their début EP Closer to the Sun, Shrine show themselves to be a band that have already reached sonic maturity at an early age, gliding through time signatures and styles with the sort of self-assurance you’d assume would take years to hone. This combined with vocalist Will Gardener’s ability to shift seamlessly from a gentle falsetto to a guttural bellow to an Anthony Green-esque screech indicates the true multi-faceted nature of their performance.
Hard, fast, yet versatile and wonderfully melodic; Shrine are worthy of worship.
Shrine co-headline Avondale House on Monday 12th May with post-rock foursome Vasa.
