"Solace Denied" Reviews

Metal Hammer magazine (August 1999)
Riding out of the mists of essex, black metallers SOLACE DENIED (8) are a truly formidable combination of growling melody and epic ideas. proudly british, they even do an impressive cover of iron maiden's 'flight of icarus'

Terrorizer Magazine (October 1999)
One of the more impressive promo packages to arrive at terrorizer hq in recent months is the debut recording by essex's solace denied. though they have been labelled both black and death metal since their inception little over a year ago, plain old metal suits them best. their neatly packaged demo-cd offers three of their own compositions (the second of which 'I', features a dead ringer for the lead riff in marduk's 'wolves') plus a respectful cover of maiden's 'flight of icarus' (7)

Inquisition Fanzine (September 2000)
Another great UK band, and people say the british scene is dead! there are three tracks of blackish metal and a cover of iron maiden's "flight of icarus" on offer here. there is a definite hint of melodic bands such as dark tranquillity (and therefore maiden), but the morbid feel of the music is more akin to more brutal bands. although there are blastbeat sections, the music doesn't go so fast that things blur, or so slow that the momentum is lost. although solace denied are a relatively young band, they are very professional, which shows from the packaging to the musicianship and they will only get better with time and musical maturity. i suspect they are a good live act and I hope to be proved right soon! all in all a most enjoyable concoction of pummelling double bass drums and chugging riffs.

For a copy of "the inquisition" write to: Jonathon Gibbs, 1 Brow Top, Friezland Lane, Greenfield, Oldham, Lancs, OL3 7EY, England. £1.50 (UK/Eire), $4 (ROW) ('zine and demo trades welcome). issue 1 features an interview with rhodri, plus reviews and interviews featuring hecate enthroned, thus defiled, honey for christ, desaster, subvexation and more...

Golden Lake Productions (November/December 2000)
This band have only been going for 2 years which is a bit surprising when you hear the quality of blackened death metal that they produce with this their debut demo. the vocals alternate between deathly growls and blackened screams and the music similarly alternates between stompin' death and raging black metal. the production is good and the quality of musicianship for a debut demo suggests that we'll be hearing a lot more from solace denied in the future. the cover version of "flight of icarus" is cool too.

Kentucky Fried Afterbirth (issue 7)
A nice professional looking cd self-released by the band themselves containing four songs of melodic black metal with some traditional style metal influences. they show these influences most openly with their choice to cover iron maiden's 'flight of icarus'. i think i remember joel (bass) telling me once that this was how it was meant to be played. personally i feel that including it was a bit of a mistake as I didn't really rate the original and this cover of it just doesn't really add anything to the sub-standard number. maybe if they'd sped it up a bit it would've rocked but sadly they didn't. i think it would have been better to save the cd space and recording time to record one of their own songs as the 3 they put on here are far more interesting and dynamic than the maiden number. take opener 'black tower' for instance that blasts forth with chilling intent and some blistering riffs and high pitched screams but also finds time to slow down and create some dark moods.

then the cover gets in the way a bit before it's back to service as normal with 'I' and 'of foul blood'. actually pace is quite important to the band with each song boasting both fast and slow sections with maybe even the controlled moments taking precedence over the frantic blast parts. they certainly create some black moods during their controlled sections, really drawing out the misery for all they're worth, and in fact it wouldn't surprise me if it were these despondent, empty feelings evoked through their songs that they are striving for. Keep up the good work but choose your covers more carefully in the future! (7)

Esoterica Online Webzine (December 2000)
I've been promised a copy of this tape for ages, and finally managed to actually get my hands on one when f met the band briefly at the firefest a couple of weeks back. feeing the band live first definitely showed them in a different light, because since the recording of this demo they've expanded their lineup with a keyboard player, and generally made significant developments to their music all round.
in other words, what I'm trying to say is that solace denied the demo tape doesn't do full justice to solace denied the band. i can't fault the playing, because that's impressively tight for a first demo, and the raw riffage is often quite rumbly and powerful, and combines melody and thrash (not again! what is it with british bands writing melodic deathrash?) in equal proportion, with some nice moments; however, sometimes the composition is trite or obvious, retreading ground stomped over many hundreds of times by others, and the impact of the whole suffers from the deleterious effect of a very woolly production which lacks clarity in the upper frequencies. on the plus side, the screamed vocals are passionate and vitriolic, far more interesting than the often bland vocal performances the uk underground throws up, despite tending slightly towards tedium after a while by virtue of their lack of dynamics. i really wish the unsigned hordes would stop covering their favourite metal tunes, too ("flight of icarus" in this case), because I don't see how it promotes any sense of how good their actual songwriting skills are, and when there are only a couple of songs on your demo anyway, it seems a little like a waste of space. that's a personal bugbear of mine, though, and a little nit-picky.

such matters aside, there are some good moments on solace denied, and these do outweigh the bad, and i know solace denied have significantly improved since making this demo, and I know their next will be far better; there is much promise here, although it's not been delivered in the perfect package. still, this lot are worth keeping an eye on.

Mourning The Ancient Webzine (December 2000)
Coming from London, this self-financed demo mcd from solace denied, which many of you probably are unfamiliar with. the music itself is a mixture of mid-paced black/death, all of which is done and presented very well. further, the music is catchy and memorable, the latter somewhat of a rarity it seems these days. the second song of the four is a cover of their country mates iron maiden, 'flight of icarus,' which as far as death/black metal bands doing remakes which obviously sound very different from the heavy metal originals, i'd say it's an interesting remake. the remaining two songs are fast and furious, well-played and arranged, making this quite an impressive demo. there are many diverse influences apparent here as well, put together extremely well. a great demo which comes very recommended.

Unsigned British Metal Site (February 2001)
Very impessive black/death metal. a mesh between early maiden and emperor, i know that maiden and emperor have two different styles but as i said it's a mesh not a clash. i like the singing it reminds me a little of dani filth on dope. if you like late 80's, early 90's thrash and power metal and want to get into the modern death/black metal scene but don't want to get immersed in in the end. i would recomend that you get hold of some solace denied stuff. try to see them live as well, they are a tight band and there is much difference between live and studio.

good overall sound, excellent guitar work, (there is a riff just before the singer says 'i cry' which reminds me of a metallica track) and class vocals. Good work lads 9 out of 10.


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