SOULDRAINER – Departure
Release Date: 9th December 2022
Label: Black Lion Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal.
FFO: Deals Death, Eye of the Enemy, Dark Age.
Review By: Jason James
After 8 years in the wilderness, Swedish Death Metal dealers Souldrainer smash their way back to the forefront with their fourth album, Departure.
The band members (Marcus Edvardsson – Guitar and Vocals, Joakim Wassberg – Bass, Hugo Nylander – Drums and Gustaf Bennmarker on guitar) originally got back into the studio in 2020, but…you know…worldwide outbreak of a deadly airborne disease and all that… Therefore, it is now in 2022 that they announce their new offering to the Metal gods.
Fans of the Scandinavian quartet will know what to expect. Boneshaking bass and drums lay the foundation for titanic riffs and Marcus’ trademark growl.
My favourite aspect of this album is the bass. Joakim Wassberg somehow manages to make his bass grumble around in the lower registers more than a lot of bands I’ve heard, while somehow managing to remain as musical as the other band members. This is startlingly apparent on the Departure’s first track, Council Of Five. There’s a breakdown about three quarters of the way through where Joakim drops single strums in time which seem to vibrate just that little bit more. Whether that’s the skill of the guitarist or the sound engineer (or both) is anybody’s guess, but either way it works wonders and sets you up to absorb the rest of the album, knowing exactly what you’re going to get.
And that early promise is delivered in spades. This album absolutely thunders along at a relentless pace, like an out of control steam locomotive, all fire and smoke and terror. Their past albums had periods of calm before the onslaught began anew, but this is not the case with Departure. It is implacable and unrelenting, a Terminator of an album.
If Souldrainer continue to hone their craft like this, I see them staying a force to be reckoned with for a long time.
(3.5 / 5)
