Incredibly tight, catchy and heavy, the sophomore release from Feed Her To The Sharks is a solid next-step for the Melbourne quintet.
Aside from a few slightly heavier moments, Savage Seas is pretty much your archetypal metalcore album – as soon as I put it on I was immediately harkened back to my 14 year-old scene-chick days of coloured fringes, unnecessary amounts of eyeliner and sweating over Oli Sykes.
The overall sound reeks of I Killed The Prom Queen, with elements of As I Lay Dying, and even early 2000’s favourites Wish for Wings. A frenzied, (with a name like Feed Her To The Sharks, ocean/feeding puns are inescapable) and energetic pace is maintained throughout the album, with the defining moments separated by the trusty metalcore breakdown and clean, melodic vocals.
Lyrically, Savage Seas features a string of one-liners that I’m sure will be doodled all over the inside cover of a thousand geography books, such as from their lead single Buried Alive: “how can something so beautiful walk like the living dead? Buried alive, makes me f**king sick” and the opening title track where they drop their own name. Practically every song features a classic breakdown, gated synths and an alternation between vocalist Andrew Van Der Zalm’s harsh, wretched screaming and soaring, euphonic singing. Savage Seas is an exemplary metalcore album that doesn’t necessarily break any ground, but certainly presents itself as a current forerunner of the genre.
