“Solid release for a band that could truly have a bright future after some honing.”
When checking out an album on Bandcamp, one of the first things I do is scroll to the bottom, and see the tags that have been associated with the piece of music I’m about to listen to. It’s not always accurate, but with this band it is. They list metal, punk, rock, indie rock, and nu metal as tags here, and I do hear elements of all those things in this recording, even elements of prog.
The record starts with “Alt Angel of Death” which is an intro statement of sorts, and then goes into the second song where things really take off, “Crumbling Castles,” which sounds like a proggy indie rock song with some nice acoustic guitar and then morphs into almost a Portishead style vibe at the end. On track 3, “Negative XP Ruined a Whole Generation of Men”, the hip-hop influence shines through. Halfway through the album you really start to get the feel of it, and that feel is that you’re listening to a band that wants to keep you guessing.
Track 4 of 7 is “The Enemy Within” which starts off with a little Star Trek quote, which was cool. Low-fi garage rock sounds emanate from this one, a little Sonic Youth-y at times. This album is nothing if not interesting. “The Floods” is next with a discordant metallic riff and a totally spacy vibe. The album closes out with “Twain,” a very subtle and avant-garde mellow track before ending with “The 7th Power,” which starts out with a beautiful ambient intro before morphing into some more low-fi indie rock, which probably presents itself as the prevailing genre here amongst all the other influences.
Sons of Solomon definitely have a penchant for unique sounds, which is a great thing. This is a very interesting release, although they could use a little seasoning and songwriting growth to get to that next echelon. Solid release for a band that could truly have a bright future after some honing.
