Leaving us bathing in “Stardust” and longing to continue our journey only a few months ago, Soul Dissolution returns to us in standout fashion with “nowhere“, an EP comprised of only 2 songs but clocking in at over 24 minutes, with each song being over 11 minutes in length. This EP came as a much welcome and very exciting surprise to me, and I jumped at the chance when offered the opportunity to give it a review, much like an alcoholic would jump to a bottle of vodka. Indeed, Soul Dissolution left that much of a mark on me. Let’s see how they’re continuing the journey to “nowhere“.
To my satisfaction, Soul Dissolution travels further in a progressive direction, seeing the beautiful awe-inspiring atmosphere maintained while incorporating more post-rock elements than on “Stardust“, giving these songs an incredibly vivid and passionate flair. If I were asked to give an example of a band that can expertly craft a song as if it’s a story of a fantastic journey, at this point I would immediately reference either song on “nowhere“. It’s refreshing to hear songs moving in a direction less oriented on standard musical structures. Instead, these songs feel as if they’re following the dramatic structure of a written story – exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
Let’s take a minute to focus on the climax of these stories, as they consist of some of the finest acoustic post-rock sections I’ve heard yet in a metal album. What I find particularly intriguing about this is that Soul Dissolution doesn’t include acoustic sections merely for the sake of giving variation to their music; instead they have an organic feel, intertwining around the composition as tree roots caressing the soil, each element feeding off the other. These climaxes aren’t haphazardly written either – while many bands may include them as if to say “look, we don’t have to play only metal, here’s this” with absolutely no substance, these sections move with purpose with Soul Dissolution, and they have integrity. I’d go as far as to say that they feel sentient.
I am a grown man and I am very confident in myself and my masculinity, and at that I feel no shame in admitting that the ending melodies of “Fading Darkness” consistently brought tears to my eyes. Generally, when a band sticks with a riff/variation of a riff for a while I get tired of it (sometimes even frustrated), but here it works almost too well. Soul Dissolution can keep a riff for minutes on end with slight variations, complemented by some interesting drumming, and it becomes easy to latch on to and follow endlessly.
This EP may be titled “nowhere“, but I feel like we’re going somewhere with Soul Dissolution. Not only are they continuing the story that “Stardust” left us with, they are evolving as a band, as musicians, and as songwriters. I’m not sure if these are tracks that didn’t make the cut for “Stardust” or if they are intended to be follow up tracks, but does it really matter? The only thing that matters is we get what feels like a natural progression from the aforementioned, and aren’t left catatonically bathing in “Stardust” for years to come. Now that we are left floating on a thick blanket of fog through the woods, with our destination set to “nowhere“, I can’t wait to see where we travel to next.
Rating: 5/5
Continue the journey right here –
The Metal Wanderlust 