Soul Dissolution - Sora

Angry Metal Guy

Post-metal and black metal are both styles of music I can enjoy mainly under the right circumstances. There are so many interesting ways to apply each one, but combining them together, I feel, has the greatest potential. The Agallochs of the world hold special places in my heart, and this is a big part of what initially attracted me to Belgium’s Soul Dissolution. That, and the gorgeous cover art for Sora, the band’s third full-length album under the lengthy genre styling of atmospheric post-black metal, made me eager to dive right in. But how well does the music live up to the promising style and even more promising artwork?

A lot of Sora is exactly what you expect, and a good bit of Sora is unpredictable, resulting in a comfortable listen that nevertheless gets to play some emotional tricks for the listener. There are, of course, the slow, emotional picked guitar melodies, the hoarse screams of anguish, and the blast beats that don’t really feel like blast beats because the music is such a measured affair. Weepy guitar leads and ringing tremolos make up the primary leads for their songs, and a few post-worthy riffs make appearances to break up black metal passages. Soul Dissolution utilize a clean production that prioritizes the low end of most instruments. Taken together, this approach means that Sora sounds great no matter which style they explore at a given moment, with a gentle haze blanketing moments that keep the album from feeling too intense.

SORA by Soul Dissolution

This works most effectively on the three title tracks, where the band’s emotional core is displayed best. “Sora I,” “Sora II, and “Sora III”—which, despite their naming convention, are not presented as one very long song—all utilize soaring leads, crisp verses, and strong moments of catharsis to really get into the listener’s heart. “Sora I” does this so well I might have mistaken it for a Shape of Despair track, especially with the brief appearance of Acharan’s growls in the beginning. This is decidedly not funeral doom, or any kind of doom, however—when “Sora II” dives into atmoblack, it dives right in, with gorgeous tremolos atop galloping riffs and a hopeful feel that evokes the album’s skyward theme. When Soul Dissolution presents emotionally-charged music, I respond, and it’s so easy to get lost in the first half of the album because of how well they do it. The way the bass weaves in and out of the guitar lines, the way post-metal riffs transition slowly into cascading black metal is something well worth paying attention to.

As for the second half of the album, well, it’s not bad by any stretch, but it doesn’t quite live up to its preceding tracks, which makes Sora feel strong, but a little lopsided. “With Open Heart” is a great example, an eight-minute long song that has a doom-like feel and a lot of big moments that makes it feel like a closing track for the album. Mind you, it is the album’s closer, but it feels a little too on-the-nose for what it’s trying to be, like someone said “okay, we need a big, emotional closer for our atmospheric post-black metal album” as they were writing it. A bad song? Not even close—the slow, halting outro is a great moment to finish on, but compared with the emotional highs of the “Sora” series, it’s easy to finish the album wanting after the more laid-back, moody tracks are passed.

Balancing multiple styles of metal is always a tricky undertaking, but Soul Dissolution strike a great balance throughout Sora. The songwriting is their biggest strength, so much so that most of my disappointments throughout are rooted in the certainty that it could be even better. The album is constantly trying new things and applying new twists on its own sound, which feels exactly right for this release and style. As a result, I ultimately view Sora as an almost-but-not-quite very good release, a mouthful worthy of its genre tag, and a commendation worthy of revisiting in the very near future.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Viridian Flame Records
Websites: souldissolution.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/soul.dissolution
Releases Worldwide: September 30th, 2022

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