Sothis have finally unleashed some label backed mayhem upon my ears and its about time. I reviewed their demo elsewhere and I was surprised it took them so long to hook up with someone. They were from the Dimmu Borgir school of symphonic black metal back then and they certainly retain that influence. However they added a new dimension to their sound when they wondered what a double-time Naglfar would sound like, backed by a large volume of keyboards. Now this sounds like a pretty good combination to me, and I think overall it is actually.
Sadly they fell into one trap that gets a lot of bands. Sothis is simply trying to do way too much on this album. The drums never stop blazing and the guitars are a blur of death with the keyboards also trying to elbow their way into the songs. Add to this some of the most vicious raspy vocals you will hear this side of Jens Ryden, (another reason they remind me of Naglfar here), and you get a lot of good things going without nearly enough room for them to happen. This is probably why my favorite song is “Obsidian Throne.” It’s rather slow for them and pretty heavy. Think “Goddess of Sodomy” by Dark Funeral with more keyboards. Overall it’s still a fairly fast song with a lot going on but they take enough off that it can breathe on its own.
I like that I can accuse a band of trying too hard or having too many ideas but that doesn’t mean that this is a great record. However it does give me hope for their next full length because they should be able to figure out where to tone it down and where to ramp it up instead of keeping the album on 11 the whole time.
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I remember these guys from their demo – those tracks were good but I like this new sound better, with the keys taking a backseat to the guitars and drums. kind of the mix I wish the Abigail Williams had had (and so far this has no tinkly piano either).
on Dec 5th, 2008 at 12:36I reviewed the demo for Deadtide and preferred that myself. If they would just chill out a bit instead of throwing out way too much at once they’d be fine.
on Dec 5th, 2008 at 16:44I feel the same way about Biomechanical – too much for my ears to process. Music needs room to breathe, even the most extreme grindcore.
on Dec 7th, 2008 at 07:27