Cosmic Shield Revival

Hm, found these guys through an EP titled “The Crow Breeder” (2016) which I don’t see listed here… strange. Fairly cool complex melo-death it contains with echoes of Death (the later period), the Canadians Quo Vadis (think the stellar “Defiant Imagination”, above all) plus a very good cover of Obscura’s “Centric Flow” from “Cosmogenesis”.

The album reviewed here precedes said EP by three years, and shows our Venezuelan heroes as fully accomplished musicians, proficient near-consummate shredders whose influences remain the same as the ones already mentioned earlier. So expect technical/progressive, also addictively melodic death metal which starts in a more conventional, streamlined manner with “Erebus”, but rest assured that the pinnacle of all things complex and challenging in death is just 5-min away, and is called “Gabrielle” (god, not this name again…), a rifftastic pageant with soaring melodies, sudden plot twists, dense technical descents, and even something resembling a memorable chorus. A total feast for the ears which remains the highlight although later on one will bump into quite a few other delights like the trippy speedy accumulator “Whisper for the Gravedigger”, the virtuoso-prone masterpiece “Hibernal City”, and the thrilling atmospheric creeper “Super Nova”. Elena of Troy as well as any other Elena around the world will be brought to tears on “Por Elena”, the sequel to Death’s “Voice of the Soul” from “TSOP”, a breath-taking romantic instrumental etude which comes as an intro to the encompassing progressiver “Cosmic Aegis Over the Ground”, an atmospheric roller-coaster which later found a place on the mentioned EP.

The lead guitar work is superb bordering on Shrapnel-like virtuosity quite often, nicely complementing the infectious melodic riff-patterns. Mentioning melody, this is probably one of the most technically melodic, or melodically technical, efforts I have ever come across. The guys literally tear you soul, including its voice, apart with these melodious motifs which keep coming from all sides, courteously withdrawing once a more precise intricate section commences. I tend to give Quo Vadis’ “Defiant Imagination” as a sheer example of technical melo-death mastery, and this album here comes very, very close. Not much brilliance to be generated from the vocal department, though, but the guy doesn’t slouch his overshouty pitch obviously modelled after Chuck Schuldiner’s (R.I.P.) later acquired singing style. Crystal clear production also greatly facilitates the musicians in the creative process with all the instruments articulately present, especially those poignant melodic guitars again.

Some of the band members had a stint earlier called Stygian, and had an album (“In the Dark I Reborn”) released in 2007. No idea how this sounds as I haven’t been able to track it down, but reportedly it’s another tech-death affair… same goes for their latest “Sysiphean Endeavour” opus from 2018… no sight of it on the horizon… elusive these Venezuelan artists… I don’t want to think that I have to go all the way to Caracas to get a hold of these supposed gems. But I will if I have to… have never been there… let’s cross fingers this corona virus shite goes away soon.