dark rock / alternative / gothic
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'Stay Human', that has to be one of the best pieces of advice anyone could give our species in these troubled times. We must never forget our humanity, even when times get rough and when fear and terror seem to be on the rise. So when this title suddenly jumped up again, I could no longer ignore this album. It had been laying on the pile of albums to be reviewed for a while. I listened to it before but for some reason the review never happened.
Perhaps it never happened because I never really got into the first track, 'We Are Coming'. It's a decent song but it doesn't touch me as much as some other dark rock acts have done before. I found it very hard to write about so the album returned to the pile. Now, a few listens later, I'm still not a big fan of 'We Are Coming' but the rest of the album is clearly making up for it. Besides, I know now what's wrong with the song. In a way, it's similar to Tiamat's 'Cold Seed', which is also a decent song but a bit misplaced on 'A Deeper Kind Of Slumber'.
Comparing this album to Tiamat is actually not even so far fetched. Like Tiamat, Soulspirya plays dark rock, loaded with keyboards, piano and melody. Other bands that come to mind are Him, Dreadful Shadows, Lacrimosa or the most radiofriendly songs that Paradise Lost has ever recorded. The songs have a calm, gloomy character and often sound a bit goody-goody. Yet, these are some pretty nice tunes, including beautiful songs like 'The Tunnel', 'Fading Away' and the definite gothrock ballad 'Somewhere'.
The music on this debut is pleasurable listening music for dark souls, well-written, well-produced and well-varied. You can hear that these Italians (from Venice) are experienced musicians who have been working on other things before founding Soulspirya. Still, I feel that their best work is yet to come and that this album is a careful preview of what this duo is capable of. So check it out because when the next album comes, these Italians might be on their way to the big stages on 'gothic' festivals allover the world...
Serge
Perhaps it never happened because I never really got into the first track, 'We Are Coming'. It's a decent song but it doesn't touch me as much as some other dark rock acts have done before. I found it very hard to write about so the album returned to the pile. Now, a few listens later, I'm still not a big fan of 'We Are Coming' but the rest of the album is clearly making up for it. Besides, I know now what's wrong with the song. In a way, it's similar to Tiamat's 'Cold Seed', which is also a decent song but a bit misplaced on 'A Deeper Kind Of Slumber'.
Comparing this album to Tiamat is actually not even so far fetched. Like Tiamat, Soulspirya plays dark rock, loaded with keyboards, piano and melody. Other bands that come to mind are Him, Dreadful Shadows, Lacrimosa or the most radiofriendly songs that Paradise Lost has ever recorded. The songs have a calm, gloomy character and often sound a bit goody-goody. Yet, these are some pretty nice tunes, including beautiful songs like 'The Tunnel', 'Fading Away' and the definite gothrock ballad 'Somewhere'.
The music on this debut is pleasurable listening music for dark souls, well-written, well-produced and well-varied. You can hear that these Italians (from Venice) are experienced musicians who have been working on other things before founding Soulspirya. Still, I feel that their best work is yet to come and that this album is a careful preview of what this duo is capable of. So check it out because when the next album comes, these Italians might be on their way to the big stages on 'gothic' festivals allover the world...
Serge