Playing the Victim Single Review

For those lamenting Rock’s retreat from the mainstream, or the break-up of Miscreant, I suggest Playing the Victim, the newest single from former Miscreant vocalist Chris Brebner’s brainchild Shelter (not to be confused with Ray Cappo’s Hare Krishna Melodic hardcore/Pop punk band).

Stylistically different from Miscreant, which was more live crowd-pleasing rock oriented, Playing the Victim is for the crowd that preferred Disturbed to Device and eagerly await the Blacklistt album release. 

The song makes me nostalgic for those early days of the 2000’s when nu-metal was still cool and Breaking Benjamin, not Dubstep, was the approved music to break the speed limit to.

Shelter take all the best bits of that bygone error, the riffaging, the classic rock vocals, the heavy palm mute and the subtly progressive drumming, and wrapped it the expertly mastered Playing the Victim.

While slated for a 2012 release, we are still eagerly awaiting the release of Shelter’s debut EP. If they keep churning out songs as big as Playing the Victim, and get their name out there, they could be just the thing we, the people with rock withdrawals, need.

If you haven’t yet heard Playing the Victim, the single is streaming from Shelter’s Muzic.net.nz profile page (http://www.muzic.net.nz/artists/2935/shelter) and also their ReverbNation (http://www.reverbnation.com/shelternz).

NB: The lyric in the post-chorus verse is: “You bleed me, of my melody.”
It is not: “You bleed me, I’m a manatee.”

You can find the rest of the lyrics on Shelter’s ReverbNation profile.