Soulline - The Struggle, The Self And The Inanity
Soulline's sophomore release, 'The Struggle...,' seems to touch on a much more mature level than their previous debut. Still leaning towards the melodic death metal side of things in the vein of Soilwork or Disarmonia Mundi with the catchy rhythms and a cross-section of harsh roars and cleaner, more progressive styled vocals, the band make an impression that will appeal to a wide variety of listeners. At first, with the track "Greed, Sweet Need," the band seems to be a bit at loss for the clean vocals which seem very difficult to hear over the noise, and with the segmented chugs and roaring vocals the track might as well have been a very generic melodic death metal track. However, Soulline throw in some industrial influences to keep things interesting. They aren't annoying, overused technical beats, but rather random spacey sci-fi moments that a band like Pink Floyd might use. This same influence can be heard on "A New Identity," but that is one of the stronger tracks on the album, particularly in the cleaner vocal department where they are much clearer and make up for their lack of auditory on the first track. Other tracks like "The Calling Spirit Of Purification" are heavier in the melodic death meta sense and focus more on the harsh vocals which- to the bands discredit- doesn't make it as an enjoyable listen due to the lack of diversity within the track.
"The Needs Of Mankind" and "Still Mind" are the two solid melodic death metal tracks- both balanced between harsh verses and clean chorus passages (no matter how repetitive it may seem to get). The music here also is very well constructed through the furious riffs backed by the keyboards and melodic interplay; they keyboards- faint lots of time- are very clear here and add an extra symphonic and progressive element to the music without feeling foreign or overused. On the last track, "Hypnotized," they are also present, but offer a quieter backdrop since the music is so intense and heavier in the death metal vein, yet one can stil hear the keyboards over the noise, and that helps make the music take on some more epic qualities that help round out the album overall. The lyrics and concepts of the music also seem more interesting and worth listening to compared to the previous song titles and lyrics on Soulline's first album. Fans should be very pleased in the direction this band is heading, as their presence in the melodic death metal world is slowly becoming more known without instead sinking under like so many others who all tend to follow the same path.
"The Needs Of Mankind" and "Still Mind" are the two solid melodic death metal tracks- both balanced between harsh verses and clean chorus passages (no matter how repetitive it may seem to get). The music here also is very well constructed through the furious riffs backed by the keyboards and melodic interplay; they keyboards- faint lots of time- are very clear here and add an extra symphonic and progressive element to the music without feeling foreign or overused. On the last track, "Hypnotized," they are also present, but offer a quieter backdrop since the music is so intense and heavier in the death metal vein, yet one can stil hear the keyboards over the noise, and that helps make the music take on some more epic qualities that help round out the album overall. The lyrics and concepts of the music also seem more interesting and worth listening to compared to the previous song titles and lyrics on Soulline's first album. Fans should be very pleased in the direction this band is heading, as their presence in the melodic death metal world is slowly becoming more known without instead sinking under like so many others who all tend to follow the same path.
- Greed, Sweet Need
- Still Mind
- The Calling Spirit Of Purification
- A New Identity
- Newer Order Of Reality
- The Needs Of Mankind
- The House of Enlightenment
- Hypnotized
