Soil, the debut album from Glare Of The Sun, is more than just your typical doom/post-metal release. The band has brought lots of different ideas, approaches and styles into the eight-track piece and it really works for them.
The beauty of this is that whilst Glare Of The Sun clearly aren’t rushing things as Soil progresses, due to its somewhat slower pace, it never feels sluggish and maintains your interest from start to finish. The band has contructed the songs masterfully and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the songwriting, performances and even the ordering of the songs on the album – the flow is superb, with each track moving well into the next.
Each track is good in its own right, but one of the highlights has to be fourth track Circle. The versatile vocal approaches work well, with a particularly good element being the opening ‘whispered’ section being repeated a little later on in a harsh vocal style. It definitely drives the lines home and gets them stuck in your head! Additionally, later song Degeneration brings a nice bit of melody to the album – for the most part, Soil has a more aggressive vibe to it but with Degeneration, the listener is treated to a more melodic instrumental line coupled with some beautiful clean vocals that juxtapose nicely against the harsh ones that occur later in the song.
As a whole, this is a great listen and especially impressive when you take into consideration that Soil is only the debut album from Glare Of The Sun. Expect great things from this band.
9/10
