Well thought out lyrical concepts, solid production quality, good melodic death/thrash, basically everything on here is what should be incorporated in a demo.  My contention overall is that this deserves at least a "B" rating because it's dark, creative, intriguing and uncompromising.  It's taken me quite a while to finally arrive at a conclusion here.  What sets it apart from most bands are that the vocals make the atmospheric aura of the music more depressing than it really is.  But if you read the lyrical content of these 3 songs, you'll know why it's been set to have this grim voice hover over the melodic distorted guitar-work.  A well produced demo as well, you can hear pretty much everything on here.  It's got a quality sound.

I'm guessing a possible influence would not only be newer bands like Vektor, but older bands like Metallica of the old in respect to guitar tonality and diversity, other bands such as old Slayer as well as maybe even Megadeth.  That covers more of the thrash aspect of the band but if you see under the genres there's actually the blend of melodic death AND thrash metal.  So it's 2 combined and I can tell a lot of the darker sound would reflect old At The Gates, Soilwork, even old Dismember of whom were pretty much the most melodic on their debut.  But Shepherd seems to touch on their influences to mesh into their own sound and make the music work keeping it depressing and totally in the realm of the underground.

You get more than just crunch tone guitar action here there's also a clean portion but the overall effort is something that's more aggressive and uncompromising.  There are bands that emulate their influences but these guys seemed to want to create their own sort of sound and not sound just like another metal band.  That's why I give them a positive rating because they're not only those two genres here, there's innovation and unique qualities to their output.  The music is pretty heavy but it's not death metal sounding, the vocals make the sound more death-like.  The music isn't drowned out by the voice -- they mainly augment the sound and keep you guessing what's to come next.  Bright future for these guys.

There wasn't a whole bunch of lead guitar work, it was mostly rhythm guitars and you can tell that they didn't let technology do most of the work.  It was to me a talented output to say the least.  These guys are going through changes in their lineup currently and pretty much most of who contributed to this demo is no longer with the band unfortunately.  The main man is still active though, that's who was the force behind Shepherd's music and lyrics.  Just as long as that holds in place, you will have new music in the future for these guys.  So yeah, I think it's an important thing to do which is to check out and listen to this act's demo, it's definitely worth your time and listening pleasure!

Rate: 85%.

Reviewed By Death8699 (ryanfanucchi@gmail.com).

I wholly disagree with the critics (scores) for this full-length -- to me it's quality melodic metal/metalcore.  The main drawback I think was the fact that Alissa left the band to pursue Arch Enemy, though I think that The Agonist has a good fit with this new vocalist named Vicky.  I'm actually in favor of her vocals, especially the clean ones.  That doesn't mean that I'm jumping on the metalcore bandwagon, it just means that her clean voice fits.  I know that there will not be another 'Prisoners' or anything with that striking intensity, but 'Eye of Providence' is quite a good metal album.  The main changes were the less technical songwriting (not the leads), but I think that there's a definitely more metalcore element to this one.  I don't find it repetive, no way.

Don't throw out a value-judgement with the naysayers of this dubbing it to lose direction or any other flapdoodle that exists in discussing the musical element to this release.  I love the production, the guitars, voice (both hoarse/clean), drums and overall vibe to the album.  The song tempos are much less intense than previous releases, there's more of a groove essence exhibited -- songs are heavy, yet more of a metalcore approach.  I like the clean female voice, I think Vicky can really put out quality and did so on this album.  It's a little difficult to follow the actual structures though in the music.  They seemed to have had a lot of ideas of sounds they wanted to put into this and did so, but the voice fits the music definitely.

This band does nothing but offer quality to the metal scene.  Not only that, but variety or if you variability.  A definitely gifted act, I couldn't believe that people would resort to this as being nothing really worth hearing.  It's pretty awesome, though I give it a "B-" because of the fact that they didn't emphasize enough rhythm guitars that were wholly memorable.  They seemed to jump around a lot with the music, but the leads are ingenious.  It's merely a songwriting flaw to the rhythms -- my contention was that they lacked in the riff-writing despite having numerously different tunes it seems that didn't take prescedence.  I feel that it's the only major drawback because the voices are just wholly admirable.  Vicky is a gem!

I didn't manage to read the content lyrically, only the album titles.  They have very well thought out words and are very creative in that respect.  This band didn't let go of their talent or throw anything away musically, it'd just be better if they focused more on their core sound rather than having riffs going in all different directions.  Despite saying all this, the voice does match their sound and concept that they wished to put into here.  I don't think that they totally abandoned their roots, I just think that the music could've been more of an emphasis, not a swing into regression.  Very very good lead guitar work though I must say.  That really stood out on here.  Definitely talent incorporated on that front.

If you dislike metalcore totally, this release isn't for you.  Even though it fits into 2 different sub-genres, the vocals make it sound more metalcore than anything else.  It's really a good metal album though.  It has all the elements of a good album from a talented band.  There is nothing overtly fast in the tempos though, the music could've been a little bit better in terms of time spent making more riffs on the guitar that seem to capture you.  It's what made it a lesser then in their discography.  Of course Alissa could never be replaceable, but Vicky does a good job with this band.  She completes them with her voice, that's why I'm giving the album a score that I think it deserves.  Take a listen and judge for yourself!

Rate: 80%.

Reviewed By Death8699 (ryanfanucchi@gmail.com).
 

Still maintaining the thrash element, but here is 'God Hates Us All' revisited.  Even that album I have more respect for than this, mainly because of Hanneman, but also because on both guitarist's fronts, their leads were still good.  The rhythms on this one are along the same paths, with a tint of clean guitar pieces, though not much.  I'm driving at the fact that without the key ingredient to the songwriting i.e. Slayer of the olden days, 'Repentless' falls short.  There is that aggression that still exists in the band, but let's face it, Hanneman and Lombardo were the core to Slayer's unique sound and energy which hasn't been the same since (I think) 'Seasons in the Abyss'.  I say this because to me that's their last good album.
 
'Repentless' I was skeptical about especially after hearing the song "Implode" before the CD was released to the public.  I thought that it was a pretty generic tune.  Holt tries to mimic the Hanneman's sound on his leads, but no one was as unique in the lead department for Slayer except Jeff.  I remember reading an interview in the early 90's where Jeff stated that the albums show which leads are whose because he didn't want people to think his were thought of or mistaken to be King's.  Not to digress, but not only is 'Repentless' generic on the rhythm guitar aspect, King is absolutely horrible in his total lack of effort in the lead front.  Let's face it, Slayer should in my opinion just retire.  My favorites were those of the earlier days.  Old Slayer is dead, long live old Slayer!
 
Araya hasn't been the same since 'Reign in Blood', on there I think and on 'Show No Mercy' were his best vocals.  Yes, on 'Repentless' his voice does go good with the guitars, but the band's ability to write memorable songs is totally lacking.  I'd go so far to say that Slayer reigned best from 'Show No Mercy' all the way to 'Seasons in the Abyss'.  After that, they went rancid.  Not having Lombardo behind the kit you hear Paul's snare drum with a "popping" sound to it along with a total lack of effort on his part here on 'Repentless'.  There were some albums he did with Slayer that were mediocre.  On here, he's just burnt out.  His drum lines don't show or could ever be as creative as Dave was with Slayer.  I have total dislike for Paul.
 
There's really nothing that sets 'Repentless' apart from Slayer's discography, only that it's among the realm of their worst releases, even worse than 'World Tainted Blood' and 'Christ Illusion'.  Even though Jeff was still live and on those albums, they still reeked of putrefaction.  People that say that 'Repentless' is "not bad" are the people that praise Slayer's newer material versus their old.  There isn't a song on here that I liked.  I thought the whole album was crap.  There's nothing significant about it, only that it is praised by this 21st century listeners of Slayer, not the 20th century ones who are alive to hear me compare their older material all the way up until present day. 
 
This is bad music -- it totally lacks in the creative aspect of the band's writing and King should just wrap it up with his leads.  None of the music is really significant or memorable.  Nothing like Jeff's older riffs.  Holt is a good guitar player and replacement, but he tries to mirror what he thought Jeff would approve of but to me he's not as good.  A lot wah pedal use by both guitarists in their leads, mostly by Kerry.  My score is in the "D" range because I don't think that they totally flopped out.  I just think they could've spent more time focusing on the music and the lyrics Slayer has never been good at writing.  The one good thing I'll say is at least they didn't change their thrash roots.
 
This 21st century Slayer doesn't really contribute to the ingenious qualities that were so prevalent in their earlier days.  In my opinion, I stopped liking them after 'Seasons in the Abyss'.  Not that they didn't put out decent work in the 90's, it's just their ideas sort of ran out and even Jeff's and Kerry's leads were predictable.  'Repentless' doesn't have much to offer unless you had a musical lobotomy and praised it for something that it is not.  The production quality was okay, just Rick Rubin was their best producer I think.  Tom still has the yelling going on in the songs, some of the rhythms written were just "ok", Kerry's lead's were horrendous and Paul's drumming totally lacked ingenuity and precision.  Don't get this, get their earlier work if you don't have it already!

Rate: 65%.

Reviewed By Death8699 (ryanfanucchi@gmail.com).

This one I actually got after 'Broken Crown Halo', their newest because I really enjoyed the music on that one.  Here, there's maybe a little bit less of Cristina, but it's still a quality album altogether.  I'd say this one is a mix between alternative/gothic metal all into one.  I don't think that I'm misinformed in assessing that for this one, what matters as always are no just the lyrics, but the music.  I can't say that this is overly heavy guitar-wise, though I do think that they tune uniquely to maintain the "metal" sound, but the tempos here aren't fast at all.  My belief is that they never really want or wanted to sound overly heavy, they're more attuned to a quest of epic glory.  The music here exemplifies that.
 
Lacuna Coil's concept in songwriting is such that they want the vocals to match the music.  On here, you have that concept in action, not saying that this is a "concept album", just reiterating the fact that their strategy is to be fitting.  There are 2 vocalists in this band and there were about the same amount of amount of male voice with of Cristina still in the spotlight though.  I only say this because on a whole, her voice carries so well as it's clean and absolutely beautiful.  Male vocals keep the harder sound of musical core and keep it heavier sounding.  I admire both vocalists, though Cristina has one voice that's so translucent it glows with every word sung -- that's how she comes off to me.
 
Not to get too much into the sub-genres or genres in general -- as Chuck Schuldiner said "metal is metal."  There is a definite groove/vibe to this album that draws the listener into the music.  The use of keyboards are prevalent though they don't drown out the music.  There is a sort of reverb sound to this release -- it must've been the mixing/production effects of it.  It flows throughout the album.  I would suffice to say here that 'Dark Adrenaline' is a little bit of a less of a heavier sound to it then their latest -- I think that they experimented a lot with different mixtures of the guitars, keys, vocals and overall consistency.  They grab me on every tune, though I think you have to love a lot of genres of metal to like this.
 
I firmly disagree with a lot of ratings on here -- I think a lot of what's been writing in disdain for the importance of what they created here was lacking in the album scores.  Just because it's slow, it's still metal to me and upbeat.  They have this essence to their tone and the album captured that.  Again, not to get into lyrical concepts, but their words definitely match what they create musically.  A feel, a melody, a groove, a mix of all of these really captures their core concept.  It seems like an overall effort by each musician on here, they really delve into a deep array of guitars and the music itself in unison.  I think that Cristina puts in the most heart to her voice spoken or sung, she's the core.
 
I'd say that there were a lot of songs on here that I liked, if not all of them.  This is available to listen to on YouTube, the whole album is online.  If you go through each track, I'd say pick any.  Remember, this isn't an overly heavy album, just the guitars are down-tuned for thickness, but there's a lot more vocals both male and female that you have to suit your musical pallet to like the songs.  I believe that this band has a lot longer career than most metal bands because they play not for heaviness for the sake of heaviness, they're more of a groove-laden band even though they do fall under those 2 sub-genres.  Pick this up to support the band and metal, it does a lot of justice!

Rate: 80%.

Reviewed By Death8699 (ryanfanucchi@gmail.com).