Solace and Stable‘s “The Systematic Erosion Of Integrity” is not your generic metalcore act, they bring forth unique riffing and melodic leads that make the leaders of the genre look elementary. Their guitar tone is heavy but not tuned ridiculously low and the bass guitar is handling that part. Drumming sounds good and is fun to listen to. I really enjoy the fierce vocal style of Sam Tennant, it’s not an overly high screech and it’s not your usual gut busting lows, it’s this mid range registered scream that just sounds really good with the progressive melodic metalcore under it. The musicianship is very tight, so tight in fact it blows my mind that I have not heard of these guys and we’re in the same town. How have I not seen these guys live?
This album breathes new life into a tired genre, bands like God Forbid and Trivium still speak loud and proud for this style of metal but many bands just don’t/can’t do it anymore without sounding like they are repeating themselves over and over again. Solace and Stable’s approach is fresh and fun to listen to. There are so many things to pay attention to that you have to listen to the album a couple of times to let it all sink in. Sure, there may be some simple core riffs on a song or two, but there is so much progressive writing going into the leads and riffing that you gotta listen to the rhythm guitar, ok now go back and re-listen for the leads, alright go back again and now pay attention to that bass. Everything is good and the production is flawless, absolutely crisp and the levels of each instrument are perfectly level. Nothing cancels each other out or nothing is not included in the mix. Not hearing a bass guitar gets very annoying when there is a man in the band playing his heart out.
My only complaint is that towards the rear of the album, I feel like I’ve had enough. I feel like some of the songs sound a little too much like the same thing. The writing isn’t bad or anything, it’s just that the songs all tend to blend together after you’ve listened for awhile. There is no real way to tell which song is which because they all tend to sound the same. Not all of them but most of them for sure. SnS stick to a formula it sounds like, keep a mid-tempo rhythm and groove throughout the entire track and add some leads. While it sounds great, it gives the album no true character.
Check out this album, it’s a damn good example of how modern metalcore should sound.