Pray

Solstice are one of the forgotten bands of early 90's death metal. Probably best remembered for their Malevolent Creation links (Rob Barrett, Alex Marquez) yet they should really be remembered for making two superb slices of death metal. This band have more of a thrash influence to their death metal sound, bringing comparisons to the mighty Demolition Hammer.

The first thing I always notice with this album is just how heavy the bass sound is. Brought up front in the mix but not drowning out the guitars, the bass sits perfectly on this album. It sounds huge and compliments the overall sound. The guitar riffs are a mixture of death, thrash and the occasional more hardcore inspired style. The faster sections have similarities to Malevolent Creation but the main comparison would be Demolition Hammer, a brilliant fusion of death metal with the more straightforward battery of thrash metal. The drums in particular are very thrash inspired, not a lot of blastbeats here but a lot of fast double bass work. 'Closeminded Failure' has an excellent mixture of drumming styles and an absolutely godly guitar solo, stunning work.

I mentioned a hardcore influence, but it's fairly minimal. Slower riffs creep in with a massive groove and there's the minor usage of breakdowns, such as at the end of 'Pray'. Generally though this is pure death/thrash played at a fairly high tempo. When the vocals are double tracked it reminds me of Deicide, only less high pitched. The vocals are quite clear for this style, more of a hoarse bark, making lyrics understandable most of the time. Lyrically this is covers quite a few bases such as pain, religion, politics, mental suffering etc. I'd say from a lyrical perspective this is more of a thrash approach rather than death metal, no gore or satanic rubbish here. An interesting approach to the lyrics.

There isn't too much variation to the songs, but they are brief as is the album as a whole (35 minutes) so this doesn't get boring. I prefer the debut album but this is still an excellent album worth getting. Fans of early 90's Florida death metal will find a great album here, even the production is very similar to the classic Morrisound recordings. Since this and the debut have been reissued together, there's really no excuse not to get these underrated albums.

Recommended tracks: Denial, Pray, Closeminded Failure, Eyes See Red.