New Jersey’s Dying Light were one of the surprise packages of 2022; Their album, Far From Life, came from nowhere and took up residence on the Sentinel Daily office stereo for some while, so it was with great pleasure that I discovered they’ve come up with a successor to FFL so quickly. And my word what a successor it is…

First impressions aren’t earth shaking; only the Alice In Chains feels of Wicked Tools and the band’s anthemic, eponymous signature tune hit hard at first contact. But, over repeated listens and a fair bit of immersion, you realise that Dying Light have surpassed everything on that debut, and then some.

Blessed with a simple, direct but oh-so-muscular sound, Dying Light rely on the strength of their songwriting to get their message across, and each track here has an awful lot going for it in those terms. Built upwards from the rolling thunder of Shaun Dilliplane‘s agile drumming and the nifty bass playing of Chris Fritz, through the stentorian grind of the guitars of James Haldenwang and Doug Edwards to the majestically-controlled roar of vocalist Jeff Ross, tracks like Refined Madness simply ooze class, recalling the grunge era of the early nineties with effortless ease; I personally had very little time for grunge at the time but, on this album’s best material – Just A Little More, say – the band squeeze the vital juices from what made that music so popular, add a whiff of classic metal and their own, inimitable skill to the mix, with the result being absolutely magical, melodic modern metal that’s an absolute joy to the ear.

Over time you’ll realise that there simply isn’t a weak link to be found anywhere on Shallow Grave; This is a band that knows it’s strengths and ruthlessly exploits them for the pleasure of the listener, making this an album you’ll be needing in your collection as soon as is humanly possible, I’d imagine…

Shallow Grave releases on January 20th