Soultorn "Masks" CD
[self-released]
Here we have five tracks of melodic Swedish styled death metal from this trio with no bassist (the guitarists played bass on this recording). Dark Tranquillity is obviously a big influence, even though they don't sound all that much like them, as the layout was handled by Dark Tranquillity's Niklas Sundin, and they even cover "With the Flaming Shades of Fall" from the "Of Chaos and Eternal Night" EP. I have several problems with this EP, but most of them stem from the vocals and the recording. The vocals range from singing to screaming, but the singing is honestly just not very good. The vocalist's range is very limited and he doesn't sound at all emphatic when he sings. The screaming on the other hand is fairly powerful, so while I can appreciate their attempts at variety, I can't they're succeeding in that regard. As for the recording, it's just entirely too thin. The drums sound okay, and the bass is alright, but the guitar tone is on the ragged side, and the vocals are mixed too loud. The guitars need to be much heavier and more controlled, the current sound doesn't work well on the lead lines at all, and it brings out some slight mistakes in the rhythm playing as well. Cleaning that up and toning down the vocals would clear up a lot of the problems, but I'd probably up the bass levels as well. The layout looks very professional, especially the front cover. I'm not fond of the typefaces used on the back of the insert or the back cover, but it's okay. I also wouldn't have included the live band photos because they just look like they were thrown in at the last minute and don't match the look of the artwork, but whatever. No lyrics are included, just recording information and such, so... I'm glad that the bad has the presence of mind to present their music in a very professional manner, but to be as honest as possible, this sounds to me like an embellished demo - which is strange as the band has released two full-lengths prior to this. But the performances aren't tight, the writing isn't that interesting (relying just as much on the heavier Iron Maiden runs as the next band), and there's a lot of room for improvement in my opinion. I would immediately suggest throwing out the singing vocals, working with a heavier guitar tone, and making sure that the playing is free of any sloppy or out of tune areas. After that? I'd just focus on writing songs that have a bit more depth and variety, though honestly with no singing vocals and a stronger sound this EP might have an entirely different (read: stronger) feel, so... (3/10)
Running time - 17:58, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: none particularly stand out]
Soultorn - http://www.soultorn.tk

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