Band:	Generation Of Vipers
Album:	Guilt Shrine
Style:	Progressive hardcore
Release date:	August 2024
A review by:	RaduP

01. Joyless Grails
02. In The Wilderness
03. Elijah
04. Lux Inversion
05. Doesn’t Mean Anything
06. A Quiet Life
07. Guilt Shrine

Back in 1997, Mötley Crüe declared "Generation Swine". It was overall very embarrassing. But for the last 20 years, metal demography has been declared as a Generation Of Vipers, which mostly accounts how sludge balanced its hardcore and prog leanings. Here's the latest example.

Now I'll be frank that Guilt Shrine is my first contact with Generation Of Vipers, and the first time that name ever crossed my knowledge. So I'm taking this review less because I have some history with the band that leads me to some sort of feeling indebted to them but solely because I heard Guilt Shrine, I made that face you make when the riffs are heavy and groovy, and I decided that I should review more stuff that I don't have any history with. In what I could gather since, Generation Of Vipers is an older band than imagines, formed in 2004 and with their debut, Grace, coming out just an year later. I am somewhat reliever that one of us picked it up, meaning that the website as a whole has history with Generation Of Vipers instead, so it only feels fitting that I resume that nearly two decades afterwards. Forgive me for having to mention Mötley Crüe to do that.

Generation Of Vipers are a trio, despite how large their sound might feel like. What I really respect about is that the band has only ever had one line up change in their entire history (at least as far as available info suggests), with the current bassist joining around 2010. It would be safe to say that Generation Of Vipers are quite tightly knit as far as lineup goes, but also there has been a 10 year gap between their previous album, Coffin Wisdom, and this current one. Releasing music after such a long absence can be a gamble, maybe even more so for a band whose name isn't as established as they should be, but if I could pick up on Guilt Shrine without any familiarity, maybe I wouldn't be the only one.

I have already hinted at the style here, and I probably should've added that there's a significant post elements. I have seen comparisons to Khanate on other albums, I don't feel they're as valid here, but something like Cult Of Luna, Isis, and Neurosis definitely ring a strong bell, especially though the vocals and the atmospheric tendencies. However I feel like there's an even stronger hardcore leaning to the vocals for Generation Of Vipers, with the instrumentals taking a bit in terms of post-hardcore, but more so having a etching of groove despite sounding more heavy and vitriolic than "fun". It's also more of a sludge that's post-leaning than actual post-metal because of how relatively brief the songs are, and even with a lot of prog leaning intricacies there's more emphasis on being immediately rewarding in how punchy the bassy atmosphere is than in building something more long form than it needs to be, much evidenced by the 35 minutes runtime. It's quite a balance to be had, because some songs like the title track do reach nearly 7 minutes and they stretch towards the more atmospheric with their cleaner and slower building moments, but that feels like a phase that Guilt Shrine had to built up to, so it feels well deserved.

To close things off, huge kudos to the production of this album for making it sound as huge as it does, because I was actually surprised to see how short the album is, because it really felt more grandiose than its runtime would suggest.