 
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
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