Album Review: Shaolin Death Squad – As You Become Us

Shaolin Death Squad – As You Become Us
Release Date: 2015
Label: Do For It Records

It’s been five long years since Texas based prog metal masters Shaolin Death Squad has released any new music. I was a huge fan of their 2006 release Intelligent Design and their following release, Five Deadly Venoms, while it took a bit for it to really sink in with me, was such a monstrous album. This time around, Shaolin Death Squad has returned with an EP called As You Become Us and I have to say that I have been totally been blown out of the water.

The opening title track is an absolutely majestic piece of progressive metal that I find to be very accessible and easy on the ears and mind. What I mean by that is that while it possesses all of the amazing qualities of a great prog song, the construction and delivery of it is very easy to swallow. “Race of the Thinkers”, much like the title track, is very easy to digest and, in my opinion, sounds like the greatest Queensryche song never recorded! This song was the highlight of the album for me as lead vocalist Andrew O’Hearn is without a doubt one of the most unsung lead vocalists out there as his delivery on this song totally showcases his diversity and his natural ability as an amazing vocalist.

As You Become Us closes with an absolutely jaw dropping, face melting, mind blowing cover of the Queen classic “Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…) that should have Freddie Mercury throwing horns form the grave. My first thought when I heard this was that if there were every any doubts of Queen’s influence on metal music, this cover should put those doubts all to rest. My second thought was that when Queen was looking for new singers, how in God’s name did Andrew O’Hearn not get the call and land that gig with flying colors? I love that Shaolin Death Squad took this song and injected their own venomous style into the song so, while remaining faithful to the original, still sounds like a Shaolin Death Squad song. As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, I can hear a lot more Queen influence in Shaolin Death Squad now that I’ve heard this cover.

Unlike the average run of the mill diarrhea of the fingers prog band, Shaolin Death Squad doesn’t over play or shower the listener with over indulgent wanking. Instead, Shaolin Death Squad utilizes their talents as players and puts it to work by crafting songs that are well thought out, flawlessly executed and actually taking the listener some place. As You Become Us is an awesome collection of songs that should definitely be earning this band a lot of new fans and rightfully so. Now if we could just get them to tour and bring this magic to stages all over the place.

About The Author