Many appearances on tribute albums behind them, ranging from Metallica to Twisted Sister, and from W.A.S.P. to Destruction, Soulless' proper label-released album hit the streets a year ago (they have a CD out, self-released 'The Darkening of Days'). Japanese label World Chaos Production is known for their habit of releasing thrash metal upon the mankind, and Soulless are no exception to that rule. The name Soulless is not in use for the first time, though, and these guys hail from Cleveland, Ohio.

Soulless' thrash could come from 15 years ago, or even more. Now, you think they sound like the bands they have recorded tributes for (I mean thrash metal bands out of those)? Maybe to some point, but Soulless more like follow the golden rules of thrash metal itself, than copy any band straight. This makes them sound familiar, yet clearly they have their own touch to their thrashing. They've managed to evade those deep pits of plagiarism. Soulless might come from United States of America, but there are typical thrash elements of the old continent in the band's branch of metal. Being never simple to dissect which thing comes from where, there's a list of what to expect from 'Agony's Laments': Flesh-ripping riffage is the majority with some "melancholic" sounding riffs (e.g. on 'Lament', maybe some Swedish thrash connections because of these), some melodiousness (somewhat in Swedish melodic death metal way, like on 'Downward'), the tempo is fast for a big part with only a few exceptions, the bass guitar is very metallic and pounds on in similar way as on Testament's classics (e.g. 'Practice What You Preach' [1989]), and the drums are everywhere. And now I shouldn't forget those tasty guitar shrieks and memorable soloing. There are no intros and such, and even 'Bleeding Darkness' starts right away with thrashing, including vocals. Into-the-point is the rule here.

The vocalization is harsh. Jim Lippucci sounds a lot like Chuck Schuldiner (Death, Control Denied). Agonized, distorted screaming is what he does with some grunts and shouts, and even some speech to make it more varying. He's not one-dimensional, something that a vocals-only guy shouldn't be anyways. Sometimes he spits the words at a machine gun pace and generally his voice is heard a lot. It looks like there's a lyrical theme, or two, at least the lyrics feel like continuing. One theme is "religions are bad", the other being "life sucks". Pretty easy to adapt myself to those things, sadly. The lyrics are written in typical evil way, with satans, demons, plagues and hells going on all the time.

The sound this is a bit blurry at lower volumes, so turn it up. Sound-wise this is very tight, almost suffocating. I mean maybe guitars should be a tad louder, since sometimes they feel a bit buried. However, the organic, live sound is still generally good. The cover art is nice, comic and yellow!

'Agony's Lament' is a tight album with no real "hit" songs; it's all between good and great. A sure bet for thrash metal maniacs, this one! Pure metal, nothing less. Definitely one of the better thrash metal albums of the noughties thus far. Enjoy together with beer.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/02/2003 12:44