Solstice of Oppression

Every once in a while, a guy comes into an obscure album from the olden days that doesn't totally suck. It's rare, but it does happen. This is usually the sort of album that sounds sort of cool for about five minutes before the inevitable realization it's a steaming pile of shit but with something approximating good potential, a hint of promise, or whatever. As metal archeologists we're so very eager to unearth that ever elusive rare gem that isn't just the fruit of wishful thinking and drastic indulgence on our part. This isn't perfect, but it's actually damn good at what it does.

The band 'SOiL' - ring a bell ? If you were caught up in the alt/nu-metal/post-grunge scene of the early 2000's, then you'd know. It turns out this is the instrumentalists from the band, before they made a career choice towards the mainstream - for better or worse. It seems completely impossible, and yet it's a fact. This is them. And you better believe the style of music here is starkly different. We're given technical death metal that can be crushing on the more straightforward power chord sections and genuinely inspiring and novel in the technical composition department. Yes, there's actually thought put into the bouts of complex riffing, achieving a compelling musicality to enjoy.

The problem is probably more with the production. Because the songs are long, stretchy prog-ish tracks, the production being merely average along with a fairly monotonous voice performance can give the album a bit of a flatness despite the guitar-work being consistently of a high caliber. The bassy production sound works well in theory for this style, but less so in application as it gets tiring overtime.

The technical shit is like prog era Death riffs but with actual purpose and far more complex architecture and vision over the fret-board. Some of the stuff here borders on genius: the guitar-work on the first song is remarkable with how it bridges so many different complex elements together, and instead of having it sound like tech-metal try-hard diarrhea it's actually coherent and highly evocative with what it's depicting, thought-provoking even. Definitely give this an ear if you're looking for 90's tech-death with emphasis on the actual riffing.