Corroding Soul “Corroding Soul”
Atmospheric black metal has begun to splinter and create its own unique subgenre known as blackgaze or post-black metal. Some acts have nailed that genre down to a T. Acts like So Hideous, Deafheaven, and Alcest. One project is the one-man project Corroding Soul. The brainchild of David Lovejoy, the band releases their debut self-titled album. Hoping to stand out amongst the rise of popular blackgaze acts. But what does Corroding Soul deliver that helps them stand out from their peers? Does the debut album stick the landing and show this up and comer is on to something?
Album opener “Shadow” opens with a beautiful, clean guitar passage. Then cascading tremolo guitars, double bass flurries and gravelly shrieking by Lovejoy starts the song off properly. With a wave of production and “wall of sound”, the song just hits like a strong wave. Especially when the double bass intensifies and the guitars just soak the song in atmosphere. Creating a juxtaposition of emotional degradation in the vocals, combined with a positive and hopeful guitar tone beneath it. A true trademark of the genre. Segueing into a nice, emotional guitar solo right before the three-minute mark, which transition into a beautiful harmonized piece amongst the double bass kicks and drum intensification. Transitioning back into clean acoustic guitars and synth pads bring the emotional weight of the music to a calming effect. Like calm waters on a lake, the music eases the listener with accompanying soaring guitars. Before the intensity amps up again with Lovejoy shredding his throat over beautiful ambient guitars and driving drums. A unrelentingly heavy and emotional opening track that gives the listener an idea of how deep they are going to go down the rabbit hole with this debut.
“Tempest” has an almost power metal/folk metal vibe to the opening. With its leading piano and synth pads, thundering double bass and guitars. Musically, the song is a lot “heavier” and more aggressive. Gone is the pure easing the listener into the song, we start off brash and hostile vocally amongst the sweeping shoegaze-like guitars and synth pads. Harsher in direction and sound, the accompaniment of strings and pads in the opening and around the three-minute mark gives off vibes of early Alcest and Amensoeurs. Especially as the music drops to clean guitar strumming and synth pieces in the background behind a simple, but effective piano part. The final two-minutes just hit like a huge cinematic crescendo as Lovejoy delivers a musical barrage of double bass, tremolo and reverb/chorus heavy guitars, and shrieking vocals that captures the anguish and sadness in the vocals.
The 11-minute “Bound” opens with chorus-soaked clean guitars. With light atmosphere beneath it, the guitars ring out in simplistic nature, but deliver an empathetic and emotional sadness to them as distorted tremolo guitar begins to rise from the ether. Beginning to overshadow the soft opening, just as the drums break the calm to bombard the listener with aggressive blast beats amongst the nice reverb-heavy guitar leads. Giving off Sunbather-era Deafheaven vibes with the track in similar song structure and production. I do think unfortunately the “wall of sound” production style does hurt the track, since a lot of the effects in the mix get jumbled or just form into one sound/noise. Losing some of the effect in the delivery. Some fine tuning in the production might have helped truly nail the delivery in my opinion. Another great lead guitar section right before the six-minute mark delivers that punch the song needs. Also showing you don’t need to shred to deliver a powerful performance on a song. Another great soft transition with pianos and guitars before the seven-minute mark give the listener some reprieve and showcases one of the things I love about the post-black metal genre. The creativity, complexity and progressive instrumentation in the music. Adding diversity and originality to the black metal sound, which some may not be a fan of “un-kvlt” black metal, but I am all for experimentation and pushing a genre into new directions.
The album closes with the song “Sapphire”. Opening again with somber, melancholic clean strums, its gives off an visual image of reflection and loss, with hints of regret as the pacing picks up. Then, we hit the ground running with huge layers of strings, guitar, drums and atmospheric elements. Showing Lovejoy wants to bring the album home in a huge level of grandeur. Double bass pops through the reverb-soaked guitars that are accompanied by strings that just add that feeling of holiness and grace to the music. Which is always a fun analogy when talking about something black metal related. The music has ups and downs that capture Lovejoy’s musical vision for the album’s closing piece. The “wall of sound” issue I had with the album so far is way toned down and more refined on this song. Hearing every little nuance and instrumentation on the track. Fully giving them their moments in the sun to be heard and add to the performance of the song.
With Corroding Soul’s debut album, the band does truly nail that post black metal/blackgaze sound to an almost progressive metal-esque precision. Lovejoy knows the genre well and with the music, delivers a strong 4-track, thirty minute beast of a record. I do think the production sometimes does hurt the record. Though the “wall of sound” does add so much power and heft to a song’s performance, sometimes things can get buried, blurred or lost. Some fine tuning on it would help the strings sections pop more, synths could be heard and add more dynamics and prominence in the quiet parts of the songs. A strong debut record, in my opinion and definitely a band that I want to hear what they do next on their second album.
SCORE: 4 / 5
You can purchase the album on the band’s Bandcamp or stream the album on Spotify.
