When Silence Grows Venomous

Having listened to previous work by Stefan and Jonas, I was intrigued to hear what their take on the old doom/death blueprint would be like. Garden of Truculence's main element during the intro is the huge sounding guitar riff, with the gently plucked guitar notes sitting underneath. There are elements too of death metal, in the drumming. The real clue comes in when Stefan Nordstrom's raspy death metal vocals start. They're low and fit the music really well. It's actually very anthemic as well, with the guitar being allowed to project melody into the song. The doom influences here are more obvious in the length of the song, and the slower passages. There's no need for Soliloquium to go all out and batter the listener, they just let the music flow and evolve. The clean guitar and singing that they play towards the end of song are a surprise and add a new texture to the music.

Autumn State follows on along the same blueprint, slow, anthemic riffs, but with added layers this time and the main verse kicks in, with less of a build up. It seems as though Soliloquium want to build more of an impact through this song. Stefan's vocals are certainly more prominent. The instrumental passages are still there though, with more great guitar melodies and cleverly placed moments of musicianship.I think this song gives them more reason to carry on along this path. It's got the foreboding dynamics that you'd expect from a project like this and it certainly places melancholy at the forefront of your mind when listening to its two winding songs.

Overall, it's great to hear musicians stepping across genres, even ones like doom and death metal, who's lines have been crossed so many times now. This demo is an assured start for Soliloquium and I look forward to seeing how it develops in the future, as the duo are currently working on new material.