Genre : Groove Metal
Label : Femme Metal Records
Origin : UK
Rating : 9.0 / 10
Buy it now
Solsikk brings you hyper-complex groove metal with a chick on top who has a tremendous amount of a certain influence going on. In fact, the whole function of Solsikk's female fronter seems to be a continuous attempt at mimicking the vocal style and deeply emotive allures of one particular artist. That artist is none other than the - utterly and completely - female fronter of industrial psyche observation unit Kidney Thieves.
Here is the thing : whenever it is possible, - and it always IS - I close out the "I" from a review, because a review should gravitate towards notions, percepts and mental constructs solely relating to its effective subject matter, and the "I" is not important, only the experience that ensued in the "I" is important and deemed as deliverable. But now I apply a short pause on this behavior, the gesture being a necessity to tell you about Kidney Thieves from my current perspective.
A relatively - and frankly, perplexingly - little known band, Kidney Thieves first hit me while I was playing the video game Deus Ex - Invisible Wars and there was this insanely elegant, and, at the same time, insanely rabid music playing in a bar that was modeled in the gameworld. A woman was singing on top of raging industrial guitar music, and her voice touched me at parts I did not know I have. I immediately searched for intel on which band that might be, and that is how I became aware of the oh!, so fruity existence of the band Kidney Thieves.
Kidney Thieves have put out top of the heat sci-fi music all the way back from 1998 that to this very day sounds and registers galaxies more relevant than your everyday average row of current random metalcore monkeys can ever HOPE to fail to dream of in their current miserable spiritual state. In other words : Kidney Thieves kicks tremendous monolith butt, their fronter is a spectacular human specimen, and sure, this here indeed is a review of Solsikk's self titled debut, a debut that REEKS the influence of Kidney Thieves. That is not a bad thing at all, at all. That is a good thing. Suggestion : first check out the female fronter of Kidney Thieves, Free Dominguez, via inspecting this video of a high quality unplugged studio performance. Then read on to be confronted with a deep analysis of Solsikk's self titled debut.
This is a full chrome musculature release that has a huge amount of love and the supremely admirable intent to seriously entertain incorporated in it. You are not taken for a fool here at all, because groove metal music gets the holy shit - and everything else, for that matter - played properly out of it on this spin, and, as such, the revealed and delivered complexity/efficiency of the effort reigns far beyond criticism. Here is why : the music on Solsikk's debut is not only complex, but it also packs legit power all the way through. Top tier, rampant riffage, manic drum work, a true feast even for the most snob pairs of ears.
The release has the super-rare ability to unravel the beauty of "organized randomness", so to speak, since everything you hear exhibits a very finely constructed balance between the formless, limitless potentiality of chaos and the expressed intent that declares a glorious path to thread diligently along, never disrespecting the potentiality of rabid chaos it actually is threading in, it actually is drawing patters in-, drawing patterns from. Regardless of the genre, this clearly is the most demanding kind of music to construct, and here is why : because, to put it as simply as it is humanly possible, it takes fucking WORK to realize. You can not employ shortcuts and other similar tricks to come up with presentable results while on this agenda of contributing music that exhibits this commanding level of complexity and legitimacy. You need to worship the mere nature of rhythm, pitch, dynamics and similar entities to be able to come up with something that compares to the delicate sonic data contained on this exquisite release.
Solsikk's debut is one superbly fresh and brisk delivery, giving you 42 minutes of top quality audible intricacy to immerse yourself in. The compositions are exceptionally efficient in the regard that they are totally free of a need to relate to a certain comfort zone, they instead declare their indisputable right to exist by raw sonic willpower, and this also is something you can not mimic if the consorting, true awareness of the musical field you want to channel from is off limits to your current musical intent. This album is formed of very luscious and well defined intents, about that, you can - paradoxically enough - have your zero doubts in a comfy manner.
The only reason the album does not shatter into the well-above-9 category on this here music review website Noise Shaft, is the vocal contribution of the female fronter of the band. She is a Free Dominguez wannabe, and not herself, not on this release. She is decent. But far from great. Her simulated "I just had my 123rd nervous breakdown and you're about to be my painkiller, baaaabbbybear" stance wears out twice as quickly as you hope it would, her bluesy rasp is simply artificial and is subject to constant abuse, and her pipes simply lack the emotive power and crystal clear rendition of female fragility/female strength so evident in the voice of Free Dominguez. She does not sound to be coming from the heart, she sounds to be coming from the agenda of mimicking Free Dominguez at all costs. I - oops, I did it again - do not think that it is impossible to mimic the style of Free Dominguez efficiently, but, to accomplish that, that female performer definitely has to have this fragile, tender vibe in her voice along with the Animal, Rampant. Free Dominguez packs both the damsel in distress and the vamp. The fronter of Solsikk, on the contrary, packs both the desire to pack the damsel in distress and the desire to pack the vamp. Hell, that IS a start.
One simply can not spiritually afford to end this review on a lower note than almost unalloyed praise though, because Solsikk's debut is certainly one of the most pleasant surprises this current year has brought to us so far. In fact, it is entirely possible that the fronter will be able to cultivate that extra "it" factor into her voice later on. If you see her with that cleaver asking for me, please tell her that the ideal hitman is on my lousy ass already.
Rating : 9.0 / 10 If you liked this article, check out my music
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