general_review

SHIHAD
The General Electric (Wildside)

         Following the initially enthusiastic reception given 1996's self-titled Shihad, many (not least the band temselves) began to view the chasm between the album's thoughful, middle-ground fence-sitting andtheir furiously engaging live dynamic as a mistake. Though the perspective shift was a commendably bold step, Shihad ultimately proved a wolf-in-sheep's clothing misrepresentation, leaving much of Churn and Killjoy's defining rhythm-driven metal power on the side of the road while they wandered towards the middle of it. However, with last year's transitional Blu Light Disco EP as a teaser, the much-anticipated The General Electric reaffirms the balance between Shihad's intensity and sensitivity, delivered with the heavy weight sonic punch of 90s alt-rock production god, Garth Richardson. And this time, Shihad are totally on fire.
         With performances entriely illustrative of the unit's ensumble skill, what's captred here explodes the spectrum of their musical personalities. On one hand, there's the white-hot burn absent from their last album, thoroughly restored by the punk/metal colision of the first single 'My mind's Sedate' and the speedfreak-jack -hammering of 'Just Like Everybody Else' (originally a 'Bitter' B-side), then there's the slanted, vaguely post-punk-informed approach of a re-recorded 'Wait and See' and 'Life in Cars', where keyboards complement te massive, guitar-driven, booming rhythm-section sound, offering a melodic counterpoint. But it's also the substance beneath the styles commanding attention- the mid-tempo 'Pacifier' illuminates Shihad's capacity for considered restraint, while the intriguingly unrepresentative pop of 'Brightest Star' lays bare a sentimentality so often overshadowed by the noise.
          The General Electric is certainly a promise fulfilled- a culminative fermentation of Churn's claustrophobic aggression, Killjoy's adrenalised exuberance and Shihad's song-focus - all channelled into a bright, excitingly direct album witha going-for-the-jugular immediacy closely resembling the live thrill Shihad so often deliver.
         After a decade of momentum-building, this a realistation. It does, however, leave a big question mark. having finally nailed the essence of all they've been shooting for in an artistic sense thus far, Shihad have reached an evolutionary point that screams, "Where now from here?" As the song says, we'll just have to wait and see...