Soulgrind

Whitsongs

(c)1998 Icarus

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Thanks to Icarus for the CD

Chances are you've never heard of this Finnish band before, and judging by the remarks and reviews of their former recording, there is no reason you would have wanted to. With their new album "Whitsongs" however, Soulgrind deserves to be known by everybody!

Going a long way to defy classification, combining the influences of black metal, death metal, and doom, the music of "Whitsongs" is quite unique. Often the label of unique would go along with experimental, but if the members of Soulgrind are just experimenting, they certainly don't sound as though they are: the music has a very rich, mature sound to it.

Possibly the music managed to just achieve some sort of stable sound partially by accident. There are many points throughout the album where the music seems incredibly fragile, that is if any given sound were mixed a little louder, or a litter quieter, or if the timing of the guitar riffs was even slightly off, or the tone of the notes varied slightly, the music would simply fall apart and be a random collection of riffs. That disaster is certainly not the case however, and the music of Soulgrind is very strong, and the performance is very tight.

Although extremely simple, the inclusion of synth in "Whitsongs" has to be one of the best inclusions in the entire extreme music spectrum. The synth often opens songs with a simple melody, but it is the more calculated and balanced ambient sound it maintains almost consistently throughout the body of a song that really defines it -- the bulk of the rhythm and melody are left primarily to the guitars.

The seamless integration of influences is what really makes this an excellent album however. Keyboard melodies drift effortlessly into slow guitar rhythms that blend quickly into extreme aural assaults, in speed and aggression. And layered on top of all of this are both female and male vocals; there are continual, and balanced, tradeoffs from soft female singing to harsh male shrieking and growling, with plenty of little extras thrown in.

Only a simple summation is required: Soulgrind "Whitsongs" is an excellent recording in all respects.

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