Ontario’s Technical Death Metal newcomers Eaten By Sharks are a new type of beast. Their aim is to bring a different slant on the genre in the form of a new wave of “aquatic brutality” with their debut offering Eradication, a nautical destruction-themed first-person horror experience of a victim of society in a merciless assault of sharks infiltrating a people’s world, melding it with their own particular blend of Technical Death Metal.
Eaten By Sharks – Eradication (Self-Released)
Release Date: 26 August 2022
Words: Jools Green
“Eradication toes the line of music and concept,” the band said. “Metal meets shark, delivering seven tracks, lyrically depicting the horrors of mankind using oceanic imagery. It represents our best fin forward, pulling out all the stops to get the listener to drop anchor and experience the package as a whole.
“Lots of tasty treats in our instrumental approach, progressively chomping through each song with razor-sharp riffs and bone-crunching rhythms. Lyrically, taking the con to steer the narrative into the nautical hell that is Eaten By Sharks. Additionally, topping it off with Christian Donaldson’s sonic production, the rattles your existence like a mega-tsunami.”
Eradication delivers a well-balanced meld of superbly delivered, well-considered technical precision and aggression alongside superb storylines that are unnerving but also darkly amusing, and Matt Sherriff’s vocals deliver range, raw brutality and clarity of content.
The opening track, Shallow Water, “depicts a breach of humans imposing their presence in a shark’s home,” the band said. “Not liking this invasion, the Sharks bite back, attacking, creating fear and madness. Humanity, desperate to save itself, exacts its revenge but mistakenly, after the kill, doesn’t realize it was the children of a gargantuan Mother. She then returns to punish their greedy actions and finishes them once and for all, puny humans.”
Musically conjuring up an atmosphere of disconcerting proportions, an offering that packs a punch, with an unnerving undercurrent and atmospheric second-half leadwork, this track grabs your attention from the offset.
Dead Weight wastes no time getting down to business. It’s punchy, complex and fascinatingly convoluted in delivery, the fastest track of the album, with a great progressive angle. Lyrically, it reveals “some of the hells we face out on the open waters, alone out in the elements, what will you do to survive. Having to fight for our lives, fighting off infection and the madness that ensues. After losing complete control of the mind, you’re left with fewer limbs than you started with, begging for better days.” You really get the feel of the terror woven into the music with this piece.
The next track, Kill And Consume is an intense galloping beast that gets crunchier and punchier as it progresses, again with a superbly sinister undercurrent to the sound. Midway there is a brief, poignant, quiet and reflective segment before the haunting leadwork.
However, this time we aren’t in the water. The shark is, I believe, a metaphor for a specific element of humanity, as is the greed and consumption of the main character. The bottom line is, “don’t eat shark soup after being cursed for the poor choices of humanity. You are left wishing for the only release possible. Death.”
Don’t say Eaten By Sharks hasn’t warned you. The repeat line across the track and the line “I can’t die. Begging for the end, but something keeps me alive” brings that aspect home loud and clear.
Same Face, Different Mask is also “a little less nautical. Instead of focusing on the aspect of being like a shark, a ruthless, unstoppable predator, unable to deal with its petty surroundings. It’s time to take matters into your own hands and attack.”
However, despite their scary reputation, sharks rarely ever attack humans, unlike the merciless human psychopath, dry land’s most ruthless apex predator. Sound-wise it’s sinister, discordant and unpredictable, like the character it portrays. I particularly like the bouncy bass lines and technical flourishes that embellish this track.
We are back in the water again with the next offering, Depth Charge, a “first-person view of the horrors of a shark attack. Dragging you down into what could be the mouth of hell. Escape is not possible. All hope fades as the light from the surface disappears, leaving you with nothing but a broken shell of a body until even that gets devoured.” A track that delivers a sexy groove, complex brutality and rapidity of lyrical delivery, gory but nice!!
Technical, intense, with a bit of a groove and with a sinister undercurrent, the metaphorical message behind the track Apex Predator, which switches from the victim to the victor, is “become the apex predator. Leave nobody alive.”
About the final piece, Megalodon, the band say that it reminds you that “none of us are safe. After the endless curiosities of mankind bring us deeper into the depths, we realize we have awoken what can only be called hell. The megalodon is back and hungry after centuries of deep rest. The hope of escape is quickly cut off by the jaw of the colossal beast. Escape is the only chance to live.”
Will you survive? In the end, probably not given the last line. “Death consumes us all. We need to find our way out. We’ll never find our way out.” Again, a deep, thought-provoking metaphor is woven into the lyrics for you to ponder or just sit back in awe and enjoy the savage technical mastery and vocal brutality whilst headbanging yourself into a frenzy. The choice, as always, is yours.
Eradication should be of great interest to fans of bands like Fit For An Autopsy, Cattle Decapitation, and Revocation and will be available as a CD or digital download.
So take my advice, stay out of the water, go grab a copy and let the feeding frenzy begin upon some other unsuspecting victims.
Digital pre-save https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/eatenbysharks1/depth-charge
Pre-order from https://eatenbysharks.bandcamp.com
