The Shell Collector are an Italian Post-Vintage Rock band or so the press release claims and who am I to argue with them?
So what does being "Post-Vintage rock" mean? Well, that they are a bit like a cross between Audioslave and Nickleback with a slight Nine Inch nails edge to it and a whole lot more besides. Either way, Enrico Tiberi and Manuel Coccia have made one hell of an interesting album.
The Mean is damn fine: a heavy opener with a pounding riff and sounds very much like an Audioslave tune. Amber, however, has all sorts of odd elements that go in and around the vocals that are still very Chris Cornell-esque, though musically they stretch the palette as if it's a re-mix rather than the master mix. The quiet bits with the strings feel almost Beatlesque but being mixed by Butch Vig it may be a bit confused but it makes me want to listen to it regardless.
A Sailor has a classic rock opening before it spreads out into some heavy prog-pop. I really like the sort of odd not-quite-in-time keyboards that keep coming in as they riff away and the bluster builds and builds. In places, it reminds me a bit of Ligabuie; sounding like it's constructed to be played in some huge arena with a massive light show, very overblown.
Take your Time has an almost Faithless-style dubby feel. It comes with the odd explosion here and there: a very 4am in despair of another relationship falling apart sort of song that has a nagging reminder of Nickleback's big hit. In an odd way it's overwrought with huge dynamics: potentially a hit with the right video.
The Filter is mellow and careful, an ever so slightly epic and odd piece that sounds like a modernized version of early Genesis but with Chris Cornell singing for them, before all of a sudden a Maxi Jazz-style rap interlude invades and it mutates a few more times as they take us on another musical journey into the depths of their souls.
Le Ombre starts off with raging guitars before going epic in a Muse style, building guitar pyrotechnics thankfully without any widdly-ness but with plenty of long, Led Zeppelin guitar solo bits. I guess live this could take 15 minutes rather than the 5 minutes on the cd, it's a bit of a voyage.
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Still Winds They Blow begins as an acoustic, strummed song they might have nicked for Newton Faulkner but with 'Chris Cornell sings Extreme'-style vocals. Surprisingly, it also adds some strings to pretty it up and sounds like it's being played in a remote location as he reflects on how those winds blow as his hair blows behind him.
OK, time for another shift as Common Superstar System is more rapped rock with strafe-ing guitars penetrating and pulsating and with odd breakdowns. After the rage comes a jazz interlude that breaks into skronking rock lunacy as Enrico Tiberi howls that they "made our lives their business." Of course they did.
Mirror Me gets dubby rawk slow bombast swirling around your head. The room shakes and then breaks down quietly before a ludicrous keyboard solo that out cheezes early 80's Europe and the bombast returns. Buzzing and odd noises finish it off.
The best song title on the album is My Old Titanic Panasonic Tape Deck. The tune sounds like they are having fun with said tape deck slowing and speeding stuff up for a minute: it's a cool interlude before the album's climactic ending of What It Is - a Muse on acid flashback monster that has a very off quiet piano bit before the vocals begin their journey to the outer limits of the kitchen sink they have been throwing around throughout this album/. This is Dream Theatre turned to 15, an over the top and out of the park song that just fades out as you think we are in for a 20 minute freak out .It's over in three and a half minutes leaving you wanting more from The Shell Collector.
I think this lot would be good to see live. They are diverse enough that this is never boring and well worth checking out as a result.
The Shell Collector online
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