Although not one of the band’s founders, Shane Embury is currently the longest running member of Napalm Death, where he is bassist and main songwriter. In addition to Napalm Death, he has contributed to many other projects, including Brujeria, Lock Up, Dark Sky Burial and Meathook Seed. While he’s known for extreme metal, he drew from his love of goth and post-punk of bands like Cocteau Twins, Killing Joke and The Mission, to create his latest solo release, Bridge To Resolution. Embury provided the vocals, guitar, bass and synths, with Carl Stokes (Cancer, The Groundhogs) playing drums and Simon Efemy, who has worked with a diverse array of artists including Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, The Wonder Stuff, Pantera, Napalm Death, Cancer, The Wildhearts and Diamond Head, producing. The album opens with “Spasm Prayer,” a driving electro tune with gorgeous piano textures that give it an ethereal side, and a very hook-heavy pop sensibility. That pop side continues on “The Dreaming Abyss,” but with a more synth-driven, aggressive and darker side. On the title track, he fully embraces his influences to create a haunting, dark wave soundscape, while “Thorns In Despair” shifts in dark and brooding industrial direction, but still with an ethereal electronic undercurrent. With “How To Corrode Memories,” Embury draws on more of a post punk influence with its upbeat, swirling, almost chirpy, synths and layered vocals, and on the dreamy “Illusion Guillotine” he returns to the more atmospheric and ethereal darkwave sound enhanced with haunting female backing vocals. On “Taurus” he changes things up with an upbeat, synth-driven dance beat. The album closes with the seven-and-a-half-minute epic “The Gift Of Shame Wrapped In Guilt,” which starts as a mesmerizing ambient wall of synths, then slowly builds as piano and vocals come in and then gets even heavier with guitars and percussion but always maintains that hypnotic essence. Bridge To Resolution is an outstanding addition to Embury’s discography and one that not only stands up to repeated listens, but will have you hearing something new every time.
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