The Shrink Break New Ground
November 2008
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen
From Santiago, Chile, comes a metal band called The Shrink that has released 4 albums either on their own, or on a small label thus far - naming bands like Iron Maiden, Exodus, Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, etc., as their main influences. I don´t have a clue how easy or difficult it is for a metal band coming out from Chile to sign a record deal with some international labels. Having spun through the band´s latest effort, BREAK NEW GROUND, which they have self-released again, I can honestly say it would be about the time for them to break some new ground because they do have all the necessary and important tools in use on this record, for making it possible to break the band to a wider audience.It´s kinda hard to pinpoint actually what kind of style of metal they play because there´s a little bit of this and a little bit of that in their sound, in good measure. There´s pure heavy metal, thrash, power metal, Pantera type of grooviness and even some rock and hard rock elements on their stuff. However, it´s not like they are still seeking blindfolded their own road to travel on, with a sack of different musical ideas with them, but more like trying to explore new ground in terms of making a good and catchy music.The Shrink´s songs are overall very well built up - and one is able to hear from everything that the guys have really taken their time in the song composing process to catch as many pairs of ears as possible. Variety of different musical elements is the keyword for this band - and I especially enjoy their playing when these guys push their pedal as hard and determinedly as they can. Songs like “Destructor”, “Right Now” and “Global Warming” truly smoke, turning The Shrink into a pure shredding machine that can make your fancy ass numb with a good amount of well-targeted, sharp kicks that come in constantly in these particular songs from every possible direction - and never stop punishing you. Also, one of their best assets are definitely Cristian´s vocals that sound clear, strong and amazingly soft at the same time. He has got a pretty darn great voice, and he does not hesitate to use most of its colors in The Shrink´s material either. All this band would need right now is a good and well-organized promotion guy/company behind them in order to be able to ´break new ground´ somewhere else, but not only in their home territory. The Shrink is a bunch of talented musicians and absolutely worth checking out, no doubt.
El manager de Iron Maiden, Rod Smallwood, lleva un diario que actualiza en el sitio web. Y la entrada del lunes 23 está cargada de instantáneas de su visita por Chile.
