SOULSCAR - Victim Impact Statement
January 19, 2005, 19 years ago
(Galy)
The Brave bunch have always marveled at the high quality and creativity of Andrew Staehling's Soulscar demos, so all eyes were on the big step-up to well-run indie Galy Records. Staehling does not disappoint, even if the booklet and cover are still a bit on the indie side. No, the music enclosed upholds the band's long-standing tradition for eerily addictive quick-footed melodic death. And man, don't take that as this band being another in a crowd, 'cos Soulscar have been doing this for years, and the individuality shows, in the band's frantic, intimates style, in the daring, crazy melodies, in the odd arrangements. What's more, there's a very singular sort of treble-shrill sound to the drum tracks of Igor Cheifot that add to the esteemed feeling one gets that this is a band on a blindered path all their own, a path without much of a diet or stomach for outside influence. A bit of prog to it, a bit of doom, a bit of avant garde, but if anything, I hear a bold lack of compromise - Victim Impact Statement is just the kind of record to prime the modern front-edge thrash fan as he waits for the new Omnium Gatherum.
