Released by: Pavement Ent
Release Date: August 20th, 2013
Genre: Rock
Links: http://soiltheband.com/
Line Up:
Ryan McCombs – Vocals
Adam Zadel – Guitar
Tim King – Bass
Tracklist:
Soil – Whole Tracklist:
1. Loaded Gun
2. The Hate Song
3. Ugly
4. Way Gone
5. Psychopath
6. Shine On
7. Wake Up
8. Amalgamation
9. My Time
10. Little Liar
11. One Love
I’m not really a fan of a lot of new hard rock/metal bands. What I mean by that are the bands I consider to be “radio metal bands,” bands like Seether, Theory of A Dead Man, Saving Abel, and Sixx AM. To me, they’re all same sounding and derivative. Other than a handful of acts like Sevendust, Alter Bridge, and Shinedown, I typically try to avoid this style. None of them, even the ones I like beyond Sevendust, can even be considered metal, but these bands tend to be the heaviest stuff played on the radio with some stations being the exception. My best friend loves this type of music, so I can tolerate it, but it’s nothing I necessarily go out of my way to listen to. One band whose name I have heard, but mostly due to my dislike of the style have avoided listening to them is SOiL.
Hitting the scene this August will be SOiL’s sixth album Whole. I figured it was time to give them a shot after all this time. Initially my reservations of skipping them seemed to hold true. The first four tracks of the album are essentially cookie cutter radio metal- droning, not very dynamic, pseudo heavy hard rock. I was prepared to write a scathing review of how much I disliked the album and felt that people were missing out on so many incredible, and actually heavy metal bands out there they should skip it. Then we get to the song “Psychopath” and the album started picking up for me. I still wasn’t falling in love with it, but it seemed to start showing signs of at least stepping out of the cookie cutter a bit, adding some dynamics and a little bit of groove to their sound. Besides that one we have “Shine On,” “Wake Up,” “Amalgamation,” and “My Time” and I was starting to find myself bobbing my head a little and getting a feel for the band. Much like the first four tracks, however, the last two seemed to return to their same sound, though the positive feelings I was having about the previous five songs prevented me from being miserable about the last two.
If you’re like my best friend Roger, then this album will be an absolute must have. By applying reverse psychology on myself and figuring that as much as I dislike this style, I can use that, turn it around and say that fans of it will love it. It’s not that it’s a bad album; it just doesn’t do it for me. If you love the aforementioned acts, or are already a fan of SOiL, then chance’s are pretty good Whole will be an album you’ll want to check out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so checking out a new band playing a style I may not love, you never know when it might turn your opinion around.
Written by Chris Martin
Ratings Chris 5/10
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