CoC : Soils of Fate - Sandstorm : Review

Soils of Fate - _Sandstorm_
(Retribute Records, 2001)
by: Pedro Azevedo (4 out of 10)

The words "ultra guttural blasting sickness" can be read near the band name and album title in _Sandstorm_'s front cover, and it might make you wonder whether Soils of Fate have been listening to Mortician a bit too much. Well, Soils of Fate do have a human drummer, and a competent one at that, so I thought they might not be that much of a copy of Mortician after all. I was right, but SoF's goal of being considered Sweden's most brutal band ever is decisively hampered by mostly uninspired riffs, generic songwriting and the deeply sad result of their attempt at "ultra guttural" vocals. SoF shoot themselves in the foot by trying so hard to ensure the vocals are as brutal as possible that they completely overdo it. As a result, the ultra-low, barely human death grunts (allegedly effect-free, by the way) sound practically powerless, expressionless and amusing at best -- just a rumbling, unintelligible sound. The final scream that echoes long after the last song is over (before they go into "hidden track" bonanza, that is) provides the proverbial icing on the cake. But even if the vocals didn't ruin the whole thing, their mostly blastbeat-driven riffs are unimpressively passable at best and generic throughout. In this debut album of theirs, SoF seemingly fail to understand that there is far more subtlety to creating really effective aggression than simply exaggerating your sound as much as you can. _Sandstorm_ is a record that could eventually be played simply for fun, but which lacks any real substance.

Contact: Retribute Recs, P.O. Box 76, New Ferry, CH63 0QT, England

(article published 13/5/2001)

DEMOS
25/5/2000	P Schwarz	4	Soils of Fate - Blood Serology