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SOY

1996

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Cassette provided by the band

One thing that CDs tend to miss is the ability to give names to different sides, as this recording has the "Power Side" and the "Violence Side". I think that may be a good thing, since it is almost cheesy. Anyways, back to SOY.

The first song opens up with a sort of thrashing sound, definitely venturing into the area of noise (or noisecore if you prefer). The song titles definitely appear as those from a noise band; the type that say everything about the song, such as "It's Tom Clancy's World, We Just Live In It". Adding to the noise of the music is the screaming style vocals. These alternate with a spoken word style, which complements the music nicely.

I should stop speaking about the noise of the band, for they work some very strong melodic riffs into the music. The changes between the power metal sections and the noise are without any transition. The guitar driven power side is accompanied by a strong bass, rounding off a very heavy sound.

Somewhere along the way on the "Violence Side" they manage to get some hard-core styling into their music. It is done quite well, better than quite a few hard-core bands I've heard. As before, it is driven by a variety of guitar riffs and breaks out into the unrelenting speed and intensity that will surely inspire violence and casuse blood to flow in the pit in front of whatever stage they're playing on.

This recording is short and sweet. It doesn't mark any musical progression, but does manage to combine the elements of 80's style thrash and power with extreme styles of the 90's. SOY is worthy of some extended listening time.