Review Summary: The point of intersection between beauty and madness
In an era of unlimited access to even the most obscure indie-rock bands, it’s a great time to be both an artist and a listener. It was through some pretty random browsing that I discovered Shell of a Shell and immediately fell in love with the way they were able to encapsulate everything that I enjoy about the genre without sounding
quite like anything I’ve ever heard before. That’s a good space to occupy – Shell of a Shell are warm, intimate, and mesmerizing; they’re also raucous, unpredictable, and boast some of the most wickedly exhilarating guitar work you’ll hear. They lull you into a false sense of security and then obliterate you. It’s exactly what you want from an underground Nashville indie-rock band that has everything to prove and nothing to lose.
The thing is,
Away Team proves everything. ‘My Wildfire’ immediately showcases the band’s bread-and-butter mathy dissonance before ‘Knock’ turns the album on its side with an unexpected tempo shift/transition into the catchiest percussive breakdown which also has gnarly riffs interwoven like barbed wire. Right when you think that lead vocalist Chappy Hull might be a talented vocalist who merely blends into the music, he lets everything rip on ‘Fill in the Blank’ – a lush-gem-turned-fiery where the latter verses are all shouted or half screamed – bringing some much needed passion and intensity to
Away Team’s make-up. That emphatic, proclamatory vocal style makes several returns across the remainder of the album, helping distinguish Shell of a Shell from similar and equally talented contemporaries such as ITEM.
While
Away Team still knows how to shimmer, as evidenced by the glossy guitars of the opener ‘Funny’ and mid-album gem ‘Find Me a Field’, the record is primarily immersed in wiry, meandering lo-fi song structures with dynamic directional changes and emotionally explosive peaks. These pinnacles aren’t just vocal by nature; this is a guitar-driven experience and the most significant cruxes of the album come by way of murky, complex breakdowns that are as mesmerizing as they are disorienting. ‘Forgetting Symptom’ is a perfect example of how Shell of a Shell blend their two greatest strengths together, using a tradeoff between Hull’s coarse shouts and complicated, distorted riffs to unleash a sort of urgency and discomfort that few bands are capable of. When they purposely accent such chaos with riffs as deliberately infectious as what follows on ‘Away Team’, it almost feels like there’s no limit to Shell of a Shell’s scope of sounds.
Away Team isn’t content to leave us with a batch of short, punchy indie-rock tunes. Its pair of closers are veritable twin towers; ‘Don’t Expect’ and ‘Seems Like’ are eight-and-a-half and ten minutes respectively, and each song ushers the album to an epic conclusion. ‘Don’t Expect’ commences with slow dissonant chords, but eventually weaves its way through soft, reflective pools of ambient electric guitar before ramping up the percussion to once again make way for Hull’s impassioned screams. ‘Seems Like’ ties the entire experience together, replete with sinister atmospheric undertones, high-pitched wailing guitars, Hull’s most electrifying shrieks, and even an all-out jam session inserted as a hidden track. It would be an understatement to say that
Away Team gets better as it progresses; with these two epic indie-rockers, Shell of a Shell prove that they have a higher gear – and it’s exciting to think of them continuing to craft songs this lengthy, elaborate, and impactful in the future.
Shell of a Shell will put themselves on some radars with this debut.
Away Team is one of those rare releases where the music is so strong that it muscles its way into the spotlight even without much name recognition surrounding the artist. Driven equally by beautiful indie-rock and aggressive, impulsive instrumentation, it’s an album overflowing with the sort of blind turns that keep listeners on the edges of their seats. Shell of a Shell waste no time putting it all on the line, and
Away Team will immediately stamp them as an indie-rock act that’s quickly on the rise.
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