siLLy puPPy Doing what many angsty youngsters from far outposts of the planet do, SHILDRAIN is a new musical outlet for four metalheads from the northeastern Brazilian city of Belem which isn’t too far from the mouth of the mighty Amazon River. The band have released the first EP in 2019 titled DRAINED which i presume is related to the band name which comes from lead singer / guitarist Alexandre SHILDRAIN.

This is some extreme metal here which is a nice mix of thrash and groove metal and is influenced by early Sepultura, Machine Head, Gojira, Ektomorf, Panetera and Meshuggah. This is riff based metal with mid tempo stomps, exaggerated shouted vocals and heavy caustic distortion. The drums are somewhat laid back for a groove metal band but the guitars are more active. Everything sounds downtuned so the overall sound is dark and murky.

Vocally, Alexandre sounds possessed and gutturally down in the dumps. Angsty baritone screams and sludgy guitar riffs with occasional lead guitar squeals offer the perfect depressive backdrop for the intense lyrical themes of child abuse, suicide and slave labor. Think more depressive early Machine Head than Pantera or Sepultura and you’ll get the picture. This EP is only about 20 minutes long and serves as somewhat of a demo but a future release is well underway.

It’s clear these guys have done their homework as they’ve amalgamated various band’s styles and melded them into their own, however none of the five tracks on DRAINED really stand out. The musicianship is a bit on the sloppy side which gives the whole thing a sort of stoned out heavy psych sort of vibe but it’s not really bad or anything. Basically this EP doesn’t make a great impact. It’s all sort of bland and middle of the road despite a decent production job and nice depressive atmosphere. Not bad but not great either.