Soul Dissolution - Cold Rays and Grey Wolves (2014)

Soul Dissolution is a 3 man black metal band based in Belgium.  Being influenced by bands such as Alcest and Drudkh, they play a brand of melancholic black metal that is unbelievably good!  Drawing inspirations from their inner struggles, the music has a very emotional feel to it throughout the 30 minute demo.  The members were very connected to their music and every song has an extremely personal feel to it.  Recorded at Celestial Event Studios, the band got to utilize a professional studio with great equipment to capture the atmosphere and they did just that. 

While the demo does featured programmed drums, it is extremely hard to tell.  The samples are very good and it sounds like there is a person behind the kit, not just a machine doing it!  Whomever took the time to program them did an exceptional job and they fit extremely well in the mix.  They accentuate the power needed in the parts of the demo that need it most and do it just as well as live drums would. 

All other instruments were performed by the member that goes under the alias Jabawok.  He is an extremely talented individual who can write some amazing riffs.  Songs like “Waves” feature a very melancholic guitar solo and a piano melody in the beginning, bringing out the emotions in the track without saturating it so much that it is hard to listen to.  The bass, like in most black metal, is hidden in the back of the music for the longest time.  There are a few parts that it comes out and you can hear it clearly and it adds a little touch into the music that you don’t regularly hear in this style of music. 

The vocals in the demo were done by Acharan.  The tone of his voice makes it seem like he is suffering through his words and letting his physical emotions pour out into his music.  All lyrics were written by Jabawok, but Acharan belts them out like they are his own and puts his all into making them as good as he can make them.  They fit the feel of the music perfectly and are not overbearing in any way, which some bands mistakenly do. 

The only bad thing about this whole demo is that it is too short!  This has left me wanting more material from Soul Dissolution.  I look forward to hearing how they grow off of this amazing start as a band and how their music develops.  You can buy this demo from the Russian label CVLMINIS but you better hurry, there are only 50 copies available for the time being!

10/10


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