Sheev – Ate’s Alchemist (Review)

This is the second album from German progressive metal band Sheev.

Ate’s Alchemist contains 50 minutes of music, and showcases Sheev’s personable brand of progressive metal. Taking in influences from grunge and stoner metal, Sheev fuse these into progressive metal creations that impress.

To add to my intro above, and taken from the promo blurb, I’ll let the band themselves describe their music – “Our sound is inspired by progressive metal bands like Opeth, Gojira, and Mastodon, mixed with our love for grunge and groove bands like Alice in Chains, Down, Soundgarden, The Sword, and Crowbar.” This is a decent place to approach Ate’s Alchemist from.

Sheev make good use of their different influences, forging a sound that’s quite interesting and atypical in some ways. The component parts of Ate’s Alchemist are all familiar from the styles mentioned, but Sheev take these and smash them together like mad scientists. The different genres and styles blend together into one, a holistic metallic mass of jagged edges and soft colours.

The songs have plenty of stoner-inflected grooves and seductive, insidious melodies, but also have technical edges that are sharper than expected. Sheev’s intricate songwriting brings together different time signatures, progressive structuring, wandering bass, and psychedelic workouts, all wrapped around a core of more traditional songcraft, making for music that strives to take strengths from both. Unexpectedly, it works. Ate’s Alchemist manages to combine the immediate and familiar, with slower burning depth, allowing it to travel down paths less frequented.

Sheev’s music is a curious mix of old and new, with the band succeeding in breathing fresh life into styles that certainly need it. Sheev have the ideas, but they also have the execution and delivery. Ate’s Alchemist offers discerning listeners the chance to explore complex and multifaceted soundscapes that are worth spending the time to get to know.

Is this what happens if stoner metal gets ideas above its station and becomes all sophisticated? If so, more of this please.

Very highly recommended.