Contemporary Metal
One listen to this Scottish metal four-piece's demo release suggests they should call up their local CD manufacturers and get this E.P professionally made. Established in 2002 by guitarist Sam Ewing and drummer Iqy Mohammed, Solacy themselves suggest they are a melting pot of metal due to each member's own individual taste. I'm not too sure about a melting pot but the band is certainly contemporary. They encroach on Killswitch Engage's territory at times and occasionally tread on the toes of Atreyu. They don't sound exactly like the aforementioned bands but they're not stretching too far from current musical climates. As far as the sound and mix is concerned, Solacy's first effort is almost faultless, money well spent methinks.
A gorgeous clean guitar jingle opens the tight sounding 'Dustbowl.' The song is slightly choppy but the stop and start nature of the song follows a natural progression and turns out to be quite effective. If the band had incorporated a heavier guitar sound for this track the chugging and crashes would have had more of an impact. Vocalist Callis is perhaps the weak point here; his growling is pretty competent but his clean style leaves a lot to be desired. As well as being frequently out of tune his voice doesn't carry the power required to sing over the metal backing of 'Blessed Confrontation.' Hopefully this side of the band will improve with practice and experience, but the addition of backing vocals and harmonies would go a long way to 'beef' up the clean vocal lines. 'Theory of Mind' is another choppy number saved by a great head-noddingly infectious middle break. The end of this song is perhaps a demonstration of what this band are capable ofl its twin vocals lines and driving rhythm making for an intense and excellent ride out.
This is a solid first demo from Solacy. Perhaps a little spit and polish is required on the vocal front, and compressing their ideas into a more individual style would be time well spent. In my experience it takes several recording sessions for a group to hone a certain sound and direction. There's nothing wrong with their current choice of direction but they're not really breaking new ground or pushing any musical boundaries, however one cannot disguise the fact that these are well written and well recorded songs. A name to look out for in the future, hopefully you won't have to see it scribbled on the front of the disc in felt pen as at present!