SHIT — Scavengers of a Dying Sun (review)

SHIT — Scavengers of a Dying Sun album cover

Album · 2015 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2020-10-15
siLLy puPPy

Some bands really need help when they choose a band name i swear. Here is a good case in point, SHIT really was shitty in this department when they formed in 2009 on the border city of Tecate, Mexico but has spent much of its time in Tijuana across from San Diego, CA. The band has so far released a couple demos two full-lengths and a split however the first so-called full-length “Apocalyptic Rage” is a 17 minute cassette so that classification as an album sounds like a bunch of SHIT to me.

SCAVENGERS OF A DYING SUN is the band’s second album and the first released on CD. It’s also an album’s playing time of 34;26 so really their only fucking album per se. This SHIT-cult has gone through a few lineup changes but on this shitty release it’s Mackoy Uribe (drums), Isaac Vargas (guitar), Noel Bello (guitar), Carlos Escobar (bass) and Sam Townsley (bass). Despite the band have a rather SHIT-ty moniker, the music is anything but to my surprise.

SHIT plays a blackened form of old school death metal that uses the Floridian model of bands like Deicide, Obituary and Cannibal Corpse as the prototype and then fortifies their rampaging metal madness with crust and black metal influences from bands like Sarcófago, Mystifier and Blasphemy. The album has seven tracks with a couple racing one the seven minute mark. There are also plenty of those jangly arpeggiated chords as popularized by Deathspell Omega that has some atonality to the mix but generally speaking this is a fairly “accessible” death metal band with blackened overtones.

There are also a few guest musicians on here such as Lorenzo Kemp playing lead guitars on “On The Wings Of Extermination,” Antimo Buonnano on backing vocals on “Bearer Of The Stigma” and Melchor Félix on lead guitars on “Revenant Worship.” The musicians are quite talented and create a maelstrom of high tempo riffing sessions that are quite impressive. The rhythm section of guitar, bass and drums is in perfect tandem and there are backdrop counterpoints that add a creepy atmosphere. In other words this band is much better than the SHIT moniker suggests. Perhaps a band name like Monsters of SHIT would’ve had a better ring to it but whatever!

This is a really excellent blackened death metal album actually! No SHIT! The tracks all vary from one another. There are moments of down time as in the classical epic intro on “Sulphur The Right” and the death metal is played impeccably tight and ferociously. The vocals are much more varied than the average guttural growls and although based in old school death metal, the musicians seemed seasoned enough to create subtle virtuosity in the hypnotic riff chugs. The songwriting is particularly excellent as well with nice traditional scoops of death metal with a few interesting zingers to keep things flowing. Now grant you this SHIT isn’t the most original of the lot. There is nothing groundbreaking on SCAVENGERS OF A DYING SUN but the performances are so top notch that this is definitely an album that warrants return visits. In other words this really is some good SHIT here and you don’t have to smoke it! HA