Review by Greg on July 15, 2024.

After a short love story with our Punishment 18 Records, Envenomed took some time to reorganize themselves, and re-recording their absolute first EP might have implied an incoming return to the band's roots. Well, I don't know if it would have been for good, since my long-lasting issue with Envenomed is that, despite advertising themselves as a melodic thrash unit, they sometimes gave me the feeling they tended to forget the thrash component too often along the way...

...and you can bet this The Walking Shred isn't going to be very different, at surface level. After another rather pointless intro that could have been safely incorporated into the opener, it doesn't even offer the same strong start. 'Abandon Hope' never seems to pick up and, as predictable as putting your fastest track at the beginning would have been, I'm far from satisfied by its midtempo approach and average chorus. Envenomed often conveys the impression to be playing against their strengths, with the album's pacing being a bit of a mess, proper thrash relegated only to the tenth track 'Sacrifice' after a bit of previous teasing, three tracks in a row with a very similar tempo introducing the album, a grossly misplaced cheesy closer hailing the beauty of metal, coming after a weird Lenny Kravitz cover, and so forth... yeah, you get it, I guess. Even the solos at times seem to have toned down the outrageousness that characterized the band's sound from its very beginnings, even though they're still way above the average retro-thrash outfit.

Luckily, there's more than meets the eye, this time. 'The Dead', 'Aware', and 'Through the Cold' at the very least offer some more successful refrains (the last mentioned with somewhat of an Atreyu vibe, albeit irresistible), which was a field where the previous offerings usually fell short, and there's even a pretty good half-ballad in 'Fate Closes the Door', which acts as their 'The Unforgiven' of some sort. Given their highly melodic approach, I was almost expecting something similar on Evil Unseen, but maybe they didn't feel confident enough to take that step back then. The Metallica comparison isn't unjustified either, as regrettably late highlight 'Sacrifice' can confirm – an unexpectedly aggressive thrasher just when I was close to giving up on the album, yet I would be a lot more enthusiastic about it if I could decide whether it reminds more of 'My Apocalypse' in the chorus or 'Disposable Heroes' in the solo... oddly distracting. Once in the mindset, I sometimes think of 'Through the Never' during the bridge riff, although that's probably too harsh on my part. Coupled with the 'Blackened'-style intro of 'Through the Cold' it makes me wonder what all those people furious at Havok's V could have done if they were actually aware of this album...

But I digress. Inconsistencies aside, The Walking Shred is no doubt a step above Evil Unseen in almost every aspect. I just can't help but think it could have become a great album with a bit of minor tweaks, but we still get a handful of standout tracks to come back to, even if there are just as many average ones.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10