SOLACE OF REQUIEM — Casting Ruin (review)

SOLACE OF REQUIEM — Casting Ruin album cover Album · 2014 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
adg211288
Casting Ruin (2014) is the fourth full-length album by US death metal act Solace of Requiem. It's been a while since these guys were heard of; their last album was The Great Awakening (2010). On Casting Ruin the band returns with a new guitarist, Richard Gulczynski, who joins bassist/vocalist Jeff Sumrell (the only original member at this point) and drummer Dave Tedesco. I've followed the band a bit in the past but the only previous album of theirs I've heard in full is Solace of Requiem (2004), their debut.

As far as death metal acts go a lot has changed in the last ten years for Solace of Requiem. Maybe it has something to do with the line-up changes the band has had along the way, but Solace of Requiem was altogether a rather 'straight' death metal affair with a bit of a technical edge, whereas Casting Ruin is a much more varied experience with a stronger presence of technical playing, a noticeably more blackened feeling that extends to a mix of both high and low growling by Sumrell and even some backing symphonic elements can be picked up on in some places.

But while Casting Ruin is technically the more adventurous record of the two from Solace of Requiem that I've heard I can't ignore the fact that I enjoyed their debut quite a bit more. Not that Solace of Requiem was anything overly special to begin with, but it was a solid and enjoyable death metal effort from start to finish, one I still have a bit more appreciation for than most releases of that kind of death metal. On Casting Ruin despite the additional ideas that the band is using these days I've found the songs to blur together a bit more and there aren't any that really scream 'standout' to me the way a track like Beyond Grace did from the debut.

I just get the feeling that I'm listening to a bunch of guys who are trying too hard to stand out rather than playing safe and sticking with what they're good at. I respect that of course, don't get me wrong here. Arguably it's better to try and fail than to make the same album over and over again, but out of Solace of Requiem and Casting Ruin I know which Solace of Requiem album I'm more likely to spin again after this point.

On paper what Solace of Requiem did here should appeal to me more than their earlier, undeniably more generic work, but even though the ideas are right the song writing just falls short of producing something that's interesting beyond a spin or two. The end result is far from being terrible but I don't feel that I can recommend it too much either. A 3 Star rating seems fairest.

62/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/solace-of-requiem-casting-ruin-t3717.html)
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