Chord Progression Podcast: The Gateway to New Rock and Metal Music · Chord Progression Podcast

Shields UK Returns with New Album "Death & Connection" | The Full Breakdown & Social Media Struggles

January 22, 2026·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

Sam from Shields refuses to make joke clips for a song about his friend's funeral, exposing the tension between art and social media.

Ranked tenth still isn't quite enough for Kevin. He starts with the podcast's metal and metalcore list placements, treats second place as fuel, and uses that to pull Shields back into the spotlight. The setup is the return. Shields made noise in the mid-2010s, released Life in Exile in 2018, then went quiet for a long time before coming back with a new album set for January 30. From there, the conversation drops into something heavier. Kevin brings Sam to the closing song, Miss Me, because the lyrics hold the weight of losing George and seem to collect the album's feelings in one place. Sam answers carefully. He says he did not write it, then gives the credit to Joe, describing him as a deeply creative vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. That changes how the song lands. Miss Me was not first written as a grand band statement. Joe wrote it after George's funeral at his parents' house, with a mic, acoustic guitar, violin, and whatever else was close by. It began as therapy. Sam makes the song feel less like a dramatic album closer and more like a private moment the band later decided to carry with them. The band part comes after that. Around the end of 2023, Sam and Joe sat in a living room, went through shared Dropbox folders, and pulled together demos, unreleased songs, and loose project ideas that could turn into Shields material. That becomes the album's working method. The excerpt presents the record as something made from grief, old files, fresh intent, and a refusal to keep Shields boxed into one sound. Kevin keeps the frame wide without losing the fan feel. He comes back to the years away, the return, the more varied writing, and the pressure artists now feel around social media. The ending stays in conversation with listeners. Kevin asks what they think about Miss Me, Red and Green, Wolfskin, Abuser, and the social-media question, keeping it close to the scene instead of turning it into a press cycle recap.

As heard by us

A grief-shaped comeback that folds album writing, social media pressure, and a wider band sound into one conversation.

Shields' return comes through as a record shaped by grief, time away between albums, and the strain of being a band online, with Kevin linking those threads to Deathly Connection.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Shields talk through a long layoff, the loss of their friend George, and their new album Deathly Connection, out January 30.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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