Album review: Shepherds Reign – Ala Mai

By DAN SOUTHALL

WE are lucky to live in a time when heavy music can be truly international, be it artists working together on a common goal from different sides of the globe (or cheeseboard, whatever you want to believe) or from a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean like Samoa’s newest favourite sons Shepherds Reign. That’s right, the tough islanders have decided to play ball, so you should probably make some room at the table for them.

Opening with a quiet traditional Samoan song before kicking the doors off with “Aiga”, the most noticeable thing early is the band’s decision to sing in their native tongue. This isn’t as off-putting an experience as you might think, because in the physical versions of the album they’ve taken the time to discuss the meaning of the track as well as having translations into English where applicable.

This is particularly helpful as Shepherds Reign drive their message across on tracks such as “Samoa Mo Somoa” – a tribute to their homeland’s sovereignty – and the palpable anger within “Ua Masa’a”, a song that covers the difficult territory of the murder of the vocalist’s sister at the hands of her husband.

Unfortunately buried amongst this quality modern metal and musical venom is a chunk of overarching and unrequired fluff that extends the run time of the album into territory that makes it drag on far too long. This album could do without the saggy toothless mid-section of the album from “The World Bleeds” to “Never Forgotten” and it would have maintained its ferocity and bite, but, more importantly, it would have kept its individuality. That is the biggest thing this band have going for them. They are coming at modern metal from a different mindset that, at its heart, creates a unique new vision for metal fans everywhere.
Buy Ala Mai on CD