As a seasoned solo artist with 5 albums up his sleeves, the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Justin Bruce created his solo project Shame The Masses in 2019 where he plays his very own heavy metal sound. His partnership with lyricist Bryant Sutton is still going strong as we’ll see on his upcoming single “Kill Zone” that’ll be out on the 11th of November, it took them 3 months to put together from a series of interviews with a wounded US Marine veteran to get more into how it felt being in the “Kill Zone”.
“Kill Zone” is an intense tune with sharp melodies and a pace filled with anticipation right from the atmospheric arpeggios at the intro, creating the ideal build-up for the song’s heavy progression. Shame The Masses’ slow dense riffs and pounding drums shaped the song’s rich setting, pushing Justin Bruce’s vocals to the very front and baking it up with big sound that subtly mixes old-school rawness with a modern groove. The most interesting thing about “Kill Zone” is its smooth flow and structure, I was amazed at the first listen that it went for 8 minutes as it felt much shorter due to its soft transitions, subtle groove, and dynamic structure reflecting the lyrics’ nature.
“Kill Zone” is a heavy expressive release by Shame The Masses, its heavy topic was perfectly reflected in the music and flow showing Bruce’s writing skills and musicianship, I just felt -from my humble POV- that the vocals needed to sound slightly more aggressive at some parts. I loved its pace and how he took his time building up and giving each part the space to make its impact and this will definitely make me keep an eye on Shame The Masses, looking forward to more, cheers!
