Soley "HEX" (2024)

 

Its been a minute since we've heard from Soley. This short movie soundtrack lures us back into her creepy side. The opening theme conspires a soft whirl of 60s sci-fi horror synth with haunting layers eerie voices. It has just enough strangled percussion to muster a Victorian freak show theatrical charm. Powerful but brief. After a stint of tense dark ambience, Entering Of The Witches reignites this flame, a spaghetti western guitar spangle soured by mischievous choral voices floating through limbo. It to is halted by short duration not looking to flesh out the experience into a full song.

Desert is different, starting out a quirky oddity of childlike innocence, colliding with thee obscure. Soley's voice enters tame and gentle, getting lost as atmospheric ambiguities melt into the forefront with cursed shapeless intensities. As crescendo approaches, never arriving, she disappears, only for the cackle of crows to cry through the eerie ether. Her return brings harmony to this restlessness, a powerful resolve.

Nostalgia briefly dabbles in spooky de-tuned piano melodies but ambles back into the shadows swiftly. The nature of this format forces Soley into brief compositions, complimenting the cinema setting. Even with those limitations, flashes of brilliance still arise, a reminder she has much to offer. A craft still strong from chilling inspirations.

Rating: 4/10

Thrown "Extended Pain" (2022)

With Spotify turning me onto the modern Hardcore scene, these German slammers have caught my ear. A no nonsense, straight to the point, meat and bones approach has snappy songs swiftly erupting into frenzies of groovy anger. Roaring riffs, sporadic dissonance and infuriated shouts. These eleven minutes charge head first through spiraling manic intensities. Often, they lead into gratifying beatdowns.

Nothing new but where they excel is aesthetic production. Down tuned guitars froth and revel with a Djent tilted intensity. Dirty obnoxious bass rumbles beneath, adding a gritty texture. Syncopated drums with tight and snappy kicks reinforce the rhythmic drive, pushing much of the music forward on its fist throwing march.

A few cuts of brief atmosphere and layers of dystopian melody spice things up on occasion but their main charm is delivering on that enthralled rage that spews forth unrelenting. A promising debut, it will be interesting to see where they go from this solid introduction. With a string of singles out, looks like another record nearby.

Rating: 5/10