Album Review

Soil - WholeSoil – Whole

When Ryan McCombs rejoined Soil back in 2011 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ‘Scars’ album with an extremely successful run of shows across the UK with Puddle Of Mudd everyone was left wondering if McCombs was back just for the tour or if he was back in the band for good with the intentions of getting back to making new music with Soil, In May 2012 Soil released a live CD/DVD pack of the tour called ‘Re-LIVE-ing The Scars’ which featured the bands show at the Garage in London filmed live and soon after announced that McCombs was fully back in the band and that they were working on new material.

Now 15 months after the release of ‘Re-LIVE-ing The Scars’ Soil are gearing up to release their 6th studio album ‘Whole’ which also happens to be their first studio album with Ryan McCombs on vocals since their 2004 release ‘Redefine’.

‘Whole’ is a welcome back to form for Soil and the album that the fans have been patiently waiting for since the release of their breakthrough album ‘Scars’ in 2001, the album opens with ‘Loaded Gun’ and Soil waste no time at all blasting their way through the track with their chunky alt riffs and the much welcomed return of McCombs gruff vocals which sounds like he chewed on a few pounds of grit before heading to the studio.

‘The Hate Song’ is a big fist pumping track with such a huge intense sing-a-long chorus which is bound to become a live favourite in a no time at all as thousands of fans scream “I Hate You” alongside their hero Ryan McCombs whilst causing a massive scene in the circle pits that are bound to open when Soil lay down the riffs and drum beats to this song.

‘Ugly’ is a really interesting song as it features some solid instrumental work yet the song features so many breakdowns and sounds quite soft for the majority of the song whilst McCombs’s vocals sound softer than elsewhere on the album. ‘Way Gone’ is vocally an extremely catchy song, whilst the opening riffs of ‘Psychopath’ will make you want to trash everything in your sight.

The lead single to be taken from the album is ‘Shine On’ and it is easy to see why as the song has a slight radio friendly feel running through it in the way that the song opens in quite a soft sounding way and builds up into a big riff-tastic chant-a-long song which is up there with some of the best Soil songs ever created.

The opening moments of ‘Wake Up’ are just fantastic and the Drowning Pool meets Soil named ‘Amalgamation’ also proves to be a fast paced solid listen and album closer ‘One Love’ is a deep, dark and twisted listen which really leaves a good lasting impression.

It is a no brainer that having Ryan McCombs back in Soil was going to be a positive thing as it is safe to say that the band are back to their personal best with the trio writing and recording the music that both themselves and their fans love, overall ‘Whole’ is quite diverse sounding and is easily the second best Soil album behind their breakthrough ‘Scars’.

4/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

Ryan McCombs
Adam Zadel
Tim King
 Track Listing

1. Loaded Gun
2. The Hate Song
3. Ugly
4. Way Gone
5. Psychopath
6. Shine On
7. Wake Up
8. Amalgamation
9. My Time
10. Little Liar
11. One Love

 Band Related Links
Soil Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?