Featured Tune: "Infant Joy" from Shrubbery Terror
reviews
Where Blake Meets the Amp
Shrubbery Terror’s Infant Joy is the kind of track that makes you lean in, not just to listen, but to feel. It’s not every day that William Blake’s delicate, mystical poetry gets filtered through a kaleidoscope of rock grit, metal intensity, folk warmth, and ambient haze, but this band makes that leap feel not only possible, but inevitable.
From the first note, Infant Joy sets up a sonic paradox: it’s both fierce and tender, raw and meditative. Electric guitars growl like a brewing storm, only to be softened by passages that shimmer with folk-inspired gentleness. The ambient undercurrents give the track a dreamlike depth, like Blake’s words drifting through time and distortion pedals alike.
What’s impressive is how organically these genres coexist, there’s no sense of “forced fusion” here. The folk threads tether the song to an earthy, human core, while the rock and metal surges inject urgency and drama. Meanwhile, the ambient textures act as a bridge between worlds, making the transitions feel seamless.
But the real magic lies in how Shrubbery Terror channels emotion. You can hear reverence for Blake’s work in every arrangement choice, but also the courage to interpret rather than imitate. This isn’t a museum piece, it’s a living, breathing conversation between past and present, page and amplifier.
Infant Joy is more than a track; it’s an act of creative alchemy. It proves that literature and loudness, poetry and power chords, can meet and when they do, the result can be electrifying.