5 out of 5

Label: Two Black Eyes / Brutal Panda

Produced by: Shiner

Written during the first Trump presidency, and released during the 2020 pandemic… While those events are probably actually unrelated to Shiner’s Shadenfreude, the group’s first album in nearly 20 years, I swear that the lyrics and tone of the album had me clock it to that time. Not that Allen Epley’s thoughts have necessarily strayed far from relationships, or the potential motionlessness of life – both topics here – or that the band hadn’t essentially made their bones on being especially loud, but damn, even just take a look at that album title: there’s something pretty cutting motivating this work.

But step back to appreciate that gap – twenty years. At least Epley and bassist / producer Paul Malinowsky have been busy in various capacities during that time, but still: nothing guarantees that coming back together as a band after a pause will result in a return to form. In a way, you could argue that it hasn’t resulted in that, since Shiner pretty much catapults into a much more direct version of themselves on this record, but nah: this is undeniably Shiner; it’s undeniably an album that makes sense in their overall trajectory, they’re maybe just missing some half-steps towards this sound between then and now.

That sound is some of the most accessibly rocking, badass tunes the group has committed since their early years, having shifted into more of slow build rockers after a punkier start; at the same time, this isn’t simply an m.o. of being loud, as that rocking and rolling is aged by maturity: tracks rarely take the easy path towards intensely overloaded climaxes, and we still get a nice handful of 6+ minute tracks that manage to do the best of both worlds, old and new, slowburning at volume and then somehow topping that volume as the songs tick into their conclusions. Lyrically, while Epley still tends towards very open-ended imagery, it’s… pretty bleak, man. Love is taken to deathly extremes; malaise is paired with a kind of shoulder-shrug burn-it-all-down mentality. There’s arguably some hope mixed in there, but that might just be because the glittering riffs and Ep’s hovering vocals can sound so pretty on occasion, even when tearing the roof down with guitars upon guitars upon guitars.

Paul Malinowski’s recording gives us arena-sized low end, but keeps Allen’s vocals pretty upfront, and somehow dials in the rhythm section as needed, without ever overwhelming the mix. Self-produced by the band, all seemed pretty lockstep in wanting to keep the songs moving; the eight tracks are incredibly tight, completely bereft of some more typical Shiner sifting and wandering through riffs until the heavier bits kick in – as mentioned several times over, this is all pretty heavy (and riffy!), just some parts happen to be way heavier.

I was, like, a casual Shiner fan. Shadenfreude made me slap myself into utter fandom, going back and loving their back catalogue and then landing back at this one in celebration. It is one of those masterpieces of a discography that’s informed by what came before – it does not overwrite the relevance of those previous releases – but absolutely stands on its own terms as well.