Released by: Avenue of Allies
Release Date: Out Now!!!
Genre: Melodic Hard Rock
Links: http://www.soulseller.it/News.html
Line Up:
Michael Carrata – Lead Vocals
Dave Zublena – Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitar & Acoustic Guitars
Cris Audisio – Lead Guitar & Rhythm Guitars
Mirko “Mike” Zublena – Bass
Steve Bucci – Drums
Alexandros – Keyboards
Tracklist:
1. Wings Of Freedom
2. Change Your Heart Tonight
3. All I Can Promise
4. Keep On Moving
5. Hope On The Horizon
6. Old Hero’s Prayer
7. Back To Life
8. Hell Of Tears
9. A Message From Planet Venus
10. New Power Day
11. Rock Still Stands
12. Beautiful Heretic’s Dream
Riding high on the wave of Italian melodic rock bands, we have yet another one this time on the Avenue of Allies line up called Soul Seller. As with any band trying to make a name for themselves, these guys suffer for a while finding an identity within their sound as they gave glam, 70’s rock and Hard Rock all a shot since their inception in 1999.
While juggling the line up changes didn’t help any the guys have finally settle on a style and formed a stable line up to release this new record titled “Back to Life”. After some demos we’re send out and circulated into the hands of yes Alessandro del Vecchio who seems to be very involved in producing and in finding some of these bands out there, the band entered the studio in 2010 and recorded this new record.
Typical for the Italians in the melodic rock genres, melodic and some arena rock rhythms lead the way on the album as structurally speaking the style is pretty much the same from the git go. Lead singer Michael Carrata carries a few high tunes but normally stays pretty levelheaded headed on each melody. A guest vocal duet appears courtesy of Oliver Hartmann on the song “Keep on Moving” and it leads to a more heartbeat pacer which steams with 80’s vibes all over. The title track is another high flying highlight with moments of exhilaration that scream 80’s hard rock mainstream and I felt this style is what the band needs to complete in they’re sound overall.
An interesting more laid back ballad drives through with redemption and surprising touch in “Hell of Tears” where you hear the solid range of lead vocalist Carrata.
Even though each song is nicely performed, I have to start feeling that some of these bands are just following trends and not creating something new for the genres of themselves. I like the musicianship but I like to hear some an assortment of tunes with different rhythms to differentiate the style a bit more from the band. I think a lot of the bands coming out in the Melodic Rock circles can be linked to the 80’s hard rock and glam movement so many out there that can labeled as clones of each other.
And I’m not going as far as to say Soul Seller falls into that category, but I’m afraid that some fans may not check them out if I don’t carefully detail they’re sound; something that is hard to do in the Melodic Rock genre. Regardless of this the fact the band came from a self release independent release of only 500 limited copies to getting a deal in place with Avenue of Allies and now releasing an album to a wider audience, is something I will appreciate and hope to hear more from the band in the future as the talent is there as well. This is a strong album more so then some of the usual routine you hear form bands in the same genre, excellent musicianship toppled with crisp songwriting makes it an effort surely to check out by fans worldwide.
Written by Denys
Ratings Denys 8/10
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