by: Frank Godla
You ever go on a kick where you listen to the same record again and again with out stopping till your blue in the face? Well once a year I break out The Shattering Begins, an LP by Swedish tech-deth masters in The Shattering, and unleash the rage within. Chances are you haven't heard of this band because the LP was released on Retribute Records, which is such a tiny label I wouldn't be surprised if it was ran from the bedroom of a thirty-something still living in his grandmothers basement.
More importantly, the majority of the label's catalog is flat out terrible, but that doesn't mean you wont find a few gems. In fact, other than The Shattering, Retribute also released Man Must Die's debut LP entitled "…Start Killing" which has to be one of the best tech-deth offerings from any Scottish metal band out there.
Man Must Die thankfully went on to better things when they were picked up by Relapse Records (although their debut remains to be my favorite), but I often wonder if the lads of The Shattering ever plan on releasing a follow up.
Their one record is so tight, it's unbearable for me to imagine they threw in the towel after this release. None the less, The Shattering Begins was given to me years ago with the preface "This is like Sweden's version of American death metal" and to say the least I was blown away. I encourage you to stop what your doing and immediately download this record, (because chances are the band doesn't exist any longer and the label should be punished for the Crap to Good ratio they support). What's that? Don't like wasting your bandwidth on a band you're not familiar with? No sweat! Check out the clip below, or preview half the tracks on the band's myspace page.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_KZRlgBwU[/youtube]
