Eaten by Sharks—Eradication (2023)

Details

Produced, mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson. Engineering assistant, Dom Grimard. Artwork by Shindy Design. Released on CDN Records on Friday 14 July 2023

For fans of Fit For An Autopsy, Cattle Decapitation, Revocation, Gojira, Despised Icon

Band

Matt Sherriff—Vocals
Dan Oko—Rhythm guitar
Chris Chaperon—Lead guitar
Tyler Abrams—Bass
Justin Whitehead—Drums

Tracks

Shallow water
Dead weight
Kill and consume
Same face, different mask
Depth charge
Apex predator
Megalodon
Dead weight (instrumental)
Depth charge (instrumental)

Review

Eradication (2023) is the debut album from Canada’s Ontario-based technical death metal/deathcore band Eaten by Sharks.

Originally released on Friday 26 August 2022, the CDN Records reissue includes two bonus instrumental songs that were selected because of their unique approach to progressive tech death. These songs are the ones that have been requested the most by our fan base, and they have some really creative vocals. They highlight the work of the instruments, as well as giving the listener a bed track if they want to attempt to sing along to Matt’s vocals.

“Eradication toes the line of music and concept, metal meets shark. The album delivers seven tracks, lyrically depicting the horrors of mankind using oceanic imagery. It represents our best fin forward, pulling out all the stops to get the listener to drop anchor and experience the package as a whole. Lots of tasty treats in our instrumental approach, progressively chomping through each song with razor-sharp riffs and bone-crunching rhythms. Lyrically, taking the con to steer the narrative into the nautical hell that is Eaten By Sharks. Additionally, topping it off with Christian Donaldson’s sonic production, the rattles your existence like a mega-tsunami.”
— Eaten by Sharks

*Eaten by Sharks … presumably before they were eaten*

This album has quite an old school death metal (and even thrash metal) feel to it, although the guttural vocals definitely push it firmly into the death metal camp. It opens with a raw riff where you can clearly hear those amp speakers being pushed hard to distortion. What a great tone! Then Sherriff challenges us, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…”, the band kicks in, the riffs churn like a frantic sea. Thus begins “Shallow water” (track 1); thus begins Eradication (2023).

Throughout the album, the songs have an urgency and while the songs eventually seem to blend into one, through their progressive edge they allow the songs to breathe and explore new styles, such as the middle section of “Kill and consume” (track 3)

The engineering and production on this album is superb, the guitars, drums and bass are well balanced and in your face at all times… powerful enough at times to knock you off the pier and into the sea.

The inclusion of the two bonus, instrumental tracks is a nice touch and the absence of vocals makes them feel, oddly, like new tracks.

Conclusion

What can I say? This is a straight forward progressive death metal album, with more of an emphasis on death metal, to be honest. It finds the right balance of being both raw and polished. At 33 minutes and 48 seconds, it’s a short one, but it sure packs a punch and leaves you feeling hungry for more. My only real criticism is that there’s not much variety on this menu.

Review score: 70%

Video

Disclosure

MDPR contacted me inviting me to preview Eaten by Sharks’ latest album, thank you. I have no connections to either MDPR or Eaten by Sharks. I’m not being paid to review this, but I did get a free digital copy of the album to review which is pretty cool. Many thanks to Zach from MDPR, and to Eaten by Sharks for continuing to create fresh, exciting new metal!