Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Soil - Redefine 2004 J Records - Reviewed by: EC

Track Listing 1. Pride 2. Redefine 3. Can You Heal Me 4. Cross My Heart 5. Suffering 6. Remember 7. Deny Me 8. Something Real 9. Say You Will 10. Love Hate Game 11. Obsession

Recently I was in a used music store and stumbled on the brand new album from Soil, entitled "Redefine". I have been reading alot of good things about the band so I took a chance. Big mistake.

Soil play what I like to call safe metal. They take into effect the current trends and society's ideals of what is popular and "hip", and do the exact thing that everyone else does. This is carbon copy metal, bringing to mind stale, mindless acts like Disturbed and Sevendust, combining the simple one finger riffs that sound very much like a washing machine, even going as far as simply looping the riffs, never mixing it up, instead just doing enough to get by here, with a heavy sound and a thoughtless attempt to write angry lyrics.

Vocalist Ryan McCombs is almost nonexistent, offering nothing new with his pathetic attempts to "jock-rock", instead offering up the tired, put away vocal stances of modern rock stadium acts like Nickelback, Three Doors Down (when McCombs slows it down), and Saliva, with plenty of sad, down on his luck vocal whines reminiscent of Seattle's grunge scene.

Songs like "Redefine" and "Suffering" bring to mind Alice In Chains (like so many other bands of this genre), while faster tracks like "Pride" and "Cross My Heart" one finger groove to the likes of Godsmack and Dope.

Not a lot of innovative stuff going on here, with "Redefine" doing absolutely nothing to improve the current hard rock scene here in the states. This is absolutely pathetic and I actually apologize for not telling enough in this review. There just isn't enough here to even justify reviewing it in my opinion.

--EC 04.21.04