Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz | Review submission: About | Suggest an artist

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Shadow Of Doubt |Metal Blade, 1996|

01. She Said, 02. Black Eye, 03. Knotted Twigg, 04. Head, 05. Swallow, 06. Sam I Am, 07. Going Down, 08. Generator, 09. Dark Ride, 10. Crawl

It's been well known for quite some time that a well designed CD jacket with interesting artwork makes unit sales successful too. A burnt person with a malicious smile appears with gas mask eyes and the jaw of a skull that stares at you scarily from the Shadow of Doubt album cover. There is the mark of tie on this characters chest, but also an additional warm, yellow glow that makes this depiction as haunting as the most evil Jack-'o'-lantern. Thanks to such a remarkable illustration, this album may be picked almost instinctively by those in search of high intensity musical content and may stay in the memory of many fans for a long period of time.

Power, aggression, heaviness, dynamics and plain solutions. These five elements can shortly define the sound of this album. It should be underlined that it's yet another meaningful album from the Skrew discography.
There are a few outstanding songs as “Dark Ride”, “Sam I Am”, “Black Eye” and “Generator”, however all the other tracks don't sound disappointing in any way. The smashing power of guitars, bass and drums along with Adam Grossman's voice makes for a mixture of talent difficult to emulate or copy.

As usual, Skrew added a composition amongst the set of songs that was kept in a different mood from the rest of the album. “Crawl” has a blues ending along with a recited monologue that can only be understood when played backwards. This technique may have been a throwback to the occult accusations of artist such as Led Zeppelin and the Eagles in the 1970's who were accused of implementing subliminal Satanic messages into their music.

Shadow of Doubt was excellently produced by Neil Kernon (Nile, Dokken, Nevermore, Nihil, N17, Red Harvest, Deicide) while the mixing was done at another studio by the famous - Bill Metoyer (Slayer, Secred Reich, Corrosion Of Conformity, Deliverance, Six Feet Under). Moreover, Jed Simon (Strapping Young Lad) was a guest guitarist on the song “Knotted Twigg”. There's no shadow of doubt when it comes to the idea that an album with such a great line-up (and artwork) could have remained unnoticed.

Shadow of Doubt is a mandatory release for the fans of industrial metal music. It will help them realize how much the term 'new industrial metal' when inadequately glued to music made by other bands 15 years later, became flat and pared down when held in comparison to the original artist who made it something meaningful.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, 12/16/2012 - update. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens. This review must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)