Shade Empire is a band from Kuopio, Finland. As described on Last.fm, "Shade Empire play a form of epic Industrial Black Metal". They use keyboards better than anyone I've ever heard and the vocalist is great as well. They have released 2 full-length albums, "Sinthetic" and "Intoxicate O.S.". I practically worship this band, as no band has ever affected me like they have.

Anyone know them?

haha well, I guess they haven't affected me as much as you, but I do enjoy this band from time to time. I own Sinthetic and think it's pretty shnazzy...but I haven't been able to listen to their newest one yet. I'll pick it up eventually.

Wondered when you were going to add them

Have 'Intoxicate O.S.' and its a great release, very enjoyable for the ears. Its pretty catchy with the guitars and the keyboards adds an extra something to the overall sound to them which makes them even more enjoyable. His vocals are indeed well good too, industrial sounding with out loosing the black(ish) metal feel to them.

Have to get Sinthetic if its any where as great this album is.

Written by Xtreme Jax on 09.01.2007 at 05:41

Wondered when you were going to add them

Have 'Intoxicate O.S.' and its a great release, very enjoyable for the ears. Its pretty catchy with the guitars and the keyboards adds an extra something to the overall sound to them which makes them even more enjoyable. His vocals are indeed well good too, very industrial sounding with out loosing the black(ish) metal feel to them.

Have to get Sinthetic if its any where as great this album is.

It was only a matter of time.

Most people actually like Sinthetic better. I enjoy both equally, but Intoxicate O.S. was the first one I heard.

I have only heard about 10 songs from them but they have all been great. Good band.

Written by Xtreme Jax on 09.01.2007 at 05:41


Have to get Sinthetic if its any where as great this album is.

Next time I see you on MSN, I'll have to try to send it to you.

I actually just listened to Sinthetic for the first time in a while the other day and I really enjoyed it. The keyboards really help them sound dynamic.

I think last.fm is wrong about the industrial part though lol

Written by Dangerboner on 21.01.2007 at 05:11



I think last.fm is wrong about the industrial part though lol

How so?

Their use of synthesizers has a rather industrial edge in my opinion. Which also is part of their charm.

Yeah, it's totally part of their charm. I just don't get an industrial vibe from it. I've only heard Sinthetic though...is Intoxicate more industrial?

Yeah, in a lot of ways it is. It's still definitely Shade Empire, but they took a more industrial approach.

Intoxicate O.S. definatly has an industrial sounding approach to it. The vocals and keyboards definatly give it that edge.

Go us Smurfs in this thread

Thanks to Promonex, this band is now featured on Metal Storm, they're finally active!! Killer! Thanks Promonex!!

Really great band. I guess one reason why I like the band is because of the industrial approach in their music that people have mentioned in this thread. It just shows how well you can mix two metal genres and get even better result. I prefer Sinthetic to Intoxicate O.S. because in my opinion the music is more varied (take example the song Human Sculpture, which I think is the best one on the album) and because when I first heard how great the music is I constantly listened to their first album all over again.

Mixing of their upcoming album has began:

"Yep, all the recordings are now done and we rushed to Jyväskylä with a hard disc full of crap. Surprisingly this time we didn't have any problems and the mixing process has rolled on very smoothly so far. Good luck for Sami with that huge amount of tracks. We'll get back as something informative happens!"

Studio diary here.

With the new upcoming album entitled "Zero Nexus", Shade Empire shoot two videos which both will be released during next spring.
Meanwhile shooting video pictures are now available at this location.

I can't wait for Zero Nexus, it'll probably be my album of the year for 2008. I hope they do a pre-order deal with a shirt or something.

Written by Stigmatized on 11.12.2007 at 12:56

I can't wait for Zero Nexus, it'll probably be my album of the year for 2008. I hope they do a pre-order deal with a shirt or something.

I'm getting pretty damn excited about this album, almost more so than Wintersun's "Time"

And think you good sir for showing me the way that is Shade Empire.

can't wait for the new album too. I agree that first two albums are masterpieces. I can listen to them endlessly.
I even found the guitarist of Shade Empire on last.fm as a user. I asked him about the new album, and he even replied to me but don't remember what :/ probably that the new album will be out this year

there he is http://www.last.fm/user/kalervoraato/
btw it's interesting to see what are the bandmembers of the bands we worhship listening to

Written by Asat0r on 06.01.2008 at 07:12

Written by Stigmatized on 11.12.2007 at 12:56

I can't wait for Zero Nexus, it'll probably be my album of the year for 2008. I hope they do a pre-order deal with a shirt or something.

I'm getting pretty damn excited about this album, almost more so than Wintersun's "Time"

And think you good sir for showing me the way that is Shade Empire.

I'm way more excited for this than "Time". Wintersun is an inferior band.

No problem.

I'm one of those people who can't see the industrial in them. I dunno, it just takes more than distortion of the vocals to win me over or something. Yeah, Intoxicate does have a bit more industrial sound, but it's not enough to have it as a subgenre in most major sites. IMO

Anyways, I like Sinthetic a whole lot more, because the keys play very nicely there and I like keys. They seem to be a bit on the background on Intoxicate, plus there is some...really really crappy sound on Intoxicate that reminds me of...a few genres that I hate. There are some songs that I enjoy, like Bloodstar, though that's probably mainly due to the keyboard melody that seems completely ripped off from Banlieue 13 (a French movie), even the breaks in the keys are at about the same time as one song there.

Sinthetic however has so many good songs for me. The moment the first song starts, it draws me in and doesn't let me leave until the very end. Every song has some part that sticks to my head and won't go away until I listen to Ensiferum. The opener has the keyboards near 3.50. Human Sculpture has the chorus with Hietala and so on.
Sinthetic is actually the top album on my "want to buy" list, so as soon as I get the money, it's off to the stores to search for it.

They had the new video for "9in1" up on Youtube, but now it's been removed. Sounded good. It's not as catchy as Intoxicate O.S., but I'm sure the whole album will be great.

EDIT- Ok, they uploaded it again here

Ew...the singing reminds me of Soilwork. But, the first 1:30 or so was pretty tight.

Written by Dangerboner on 10.02.2008 at 03:16

Ew...the singing reminds me of Soilwork. But, the first 1:30 or so was pretty tight.

Please don't use Shade Empire and that band in the same sentence again.

I didn't want too :/ I hope that the rest of the tracks either don't have any sing along parts or execute it better.

I'm sure the album is pulled off well. I actually like the chorus to "9in1" after listening to the song several times. I thought the sing along part sounded great.

I've listened to the newest Shade Empire several times now, and I have some mixed feelings about it. The first track (the video track) to me is the worst thing they've ever done, a sign to me that this album will be the last time I will enjoy anything from them. However, "Adam & Eve," and "Harvesters Of Death" are killer tracks, equally as great songs from their past two albums! Also, the final track shows the band experimenting a bit with some non-metal elements, which was a real surprise considering the generic opening track.

"Intoxicate O.S." however, is miles better than this new disc, because the new CD doesn't offer much new outside of sing-a-long tracks and an experimental moment. I'm a bit disappointed with "Zero Nexus," because I really had some faith in the band's intelligence to execute better and better releases. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy listening to the new CD a lot and it gets a high 7 from me, but because of that video track, I have a fearful taste in my mouth that the band may be headed to more commericial routes. I miss the tense, urgent sounds of "Intoxicate O.S." ....!

Shade Empire is pretty enjoyable although few songs from every album are quite boring. I think that their second album "Intoxicate O.S." was better than the first (unless I'm counting in "Zero Nexus", which is better than the first two).
As I really appreciate industrial music, there's not a surprise that I like Shade Empire. More or less the band is original by it's sounding and visual view (the video of "Chemical God"). It's heavy, but industrial music with a great vocal. ^^

Just checked these guys out, they're pretty good, unique sound, i really like their videos, it brings their music to even higher estime.

Ive only heard Zero Nexus and I was very impressed with what I heard. I'll have to listen to their other 2 albums.