Band: Soul Embraced
Title: Dead Alive
Label: Solid State
Review By: JoshIVM

Tracklisting:

01. To End It All
02. Breaking Point
03. Curtain Of Deceit
04. The Devil’s Reflection
05. Everything Reminds Me Of You
06. La Fin Absolue Du Monde
07. Crawl
08. Into Darkness
09. Judas I’ve Become
10. Bloodstained Nevada
11. Kill This
12. In Memory
13. Dead Alive

It is the year of metal at Solid State Records. They announce all in one year that Soul Embraced would return, they signed The Famine made up of original Embodyment members, and also that almighty Living Sacrifice was back! Metalheads would have a chance to rejoice again as the label seemed to be returning to past years.

As was mentioned in a previous review, the production is far better than what Solid State offered 5 years ago. Thankfully this strengthens the album but it also cannot be depended on to carry a release. The band really has to have great songs first. Soul Embraced yet again mixes multiple styles of hard music into this album. From more nu metal flavored tracks to metalcore to more straightforward metal tracks this has quite a mix of sounds. “To End It All” starts things off metal. An acoustic riff with a slowly strengthening electric guitar which after taking over speeds up the riff and really gets things moving. This track is a good example of what to expect on the rest of the disc. Some amazing parts and some not so much. The best part of this song doesn’t begin until 3 minutes in and I guess could be considered a breakdown. That gives way to some high end guitar work and an epic ending that began the song. “Curtain Of Deceit” is one of the highlights of the album. Lots of finger work, harmonizing guitars, blasting drums, and pounding bass. This is what all of the album should sound like! “Everything Reminds Me Of You” is another great track that has some good melody mixed in with the brutality. “Crawl” was a surprise in that it features some clean vocals. It shows some of the bands changes in mixing in hard rock/nu metal vibes into their songs. This can also be seen on some parts of “Kill This“. With a different vocalist this would not be a metal song.

Overall Rating: Soul Embraced is capable of so much more than this. There are some truly incredible parts on this disc and then there a parts that bore me. The vocals still tend to annoy me during a lengthy listen even after all these years and I would like the band more without the Weyandt-esque sound. It isn’t a bad release by any means, but must be scored lower due to their abilities and what they gave us. (7/10)

Standout Tracks: “Curtain Of Deceit”, “LA Fin Absolue Du Monde”, “Crawl”

Links:
Website
Myspace
Solid State

Buy: Zambooie