It’s hard to believe that metalcore band Memphis May Fire will soon be celebrating their twentieth anniversary. Maybe it’s because the band live life in double quick time, but it seems only yesterday that they burst out of Denton, Texas in 2006. Since then they’ve brightened the world with seven studio albums, two EP’s and a sack full of singles that have taken heavy music into new realms. It’s a desire for exploration which has kept the band relevant, and if there was one word to describe their latest album Shapeshifter, that’d be it. Both timely and contemporary, this is an album that’s sure to swell the band’s already bulging fanbase.
You might expect a band of Memphis May Fire’s vintage to ease themselves into a new album with some kind of ambient introduction…but not a bit of it! Opening track ‘Chaotic’ comes pounding out the speakers like a prizefighter, and it throws itself around as such. With wrecking ball swing it rotates with gravitational force and sets itself on a collision course with your cranium. It might be heavy as hell, yet it is also strangely danceable; there’s a strong groove underpinning proceedings which renders it fleet of foot and it’s an interesting tension of opposites between the heavy and the lithe that will echo throughout the album. Not only is ‘Chaotic’ an explosive way to begin an album, but it’s also sure to ignite their live shows and you can almost see the pits ignite as soon as that beat kicks in.
Shapeshifter is a full on affair, but that doesn’t make the band one-dimensional, far from it. There’s plenty of light to contrast the bands shade, with each highlighting and enhancing the other. But there’s no denying that Memphis May Fire primarily deal in the heavy stuff, and they don’t come much heavier than ’Paralyzed’. Lyrically Shapeshifter takes the listener to some dark places and no more so than on the majestic, monolithic title-track. It’s a song about challenging those masks we wear and exposing those sides we keep deeply buried. It’s a theme that runs through the album and best exemplified by the acoustic ‘Versus’ and thunderous closer ‘Love Is War’, two very different sides of the same band which finds them ripping off their mask in some style.
Shapeshifter finds Memphis May Fire writhing their way through ten diverse cuts whilst stitching them together with their trademark brawn. Shape shifting sounds, indeed.
- Shapeshifter is released via Rise Records on 28th March 2025.
- Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | YouTube Channel
Track List:
- Chaotic
- Infection
- Overdose
- Paralyzed
- Hell Is Empty
- Necessary Evil
- The Other Side
- Shapeshifter
- Versus
- Love Is War
