Character Assassination

Canadian metalers Soulscar play some catchy melodic death metal with heaps of excellent guitar riffs. On this, their finely produced debut album, most of the songs are played at a rather fast tempo, with lots of riff variation, and some exceptional solos. With just a minuscule hint of Scandinavian influence, Soulscar is a refreshing sound to the genre, perhaps being from Canada has something to do with that.

Guitarist/vocalist/founder Andrew Staehling has a knack for songwriting. His riffs are technical and/or melodic, his impressive solos make him seem like a guitar virtuoso, yet the soloing fits the songs perfectly, and you never get the feeling as though Andrew is trying to show off or anything like that. There are some very unique time signatures, and the music never comes off as being overly technical or complex, which is great, you never have to stop and say "what in the hell is happening here?" while banging your head. The vocals are mostly rough raspy vocals, although there are a parts that employ clean vocals and even female vocals nicely. The drum parts have somewhat mechanical patterns, and are played by a hired studio musician. I am assuming that Andrew Staehling probably just had an idea of what the drums should sound like and told the drummer what to do from there. Perhaps when Soulscar aquire a permanent drummer the drum patterns will be a little more inspired and interesting. I digress, the drums are more than sufficient.

With so many memorable riffs, Soulscar are a very promising band that I would recommend to anyone.