THIN ICE CRAWLING

PA never ceases to surprise me! I´m always looking for something new and I can count of finding several of them with the help of fellow reviewer. Soul Enema is one of them, even if they were not fortunate in chosing their name. This is definitly one of the most interesting things I´ve heard recently. this band from Israel has something quite rare for their debut: originality. While the several styles blended together here are quite familiar to most bands nowadays (prog metal, folk, ethnic, eastern, symphonic, gothic, etc) the results are not. It´s very hard to label them and I guess that ecletic prog is indeed the closest one I can think of to do them some justice. However, this mass of sounds could go very wrong and it doesn´t, and that´s all that matters. In fact, the music is quite fluid and although far from perfect, it is still excellent and very promising.

I really enjoyed Irina Sherr´s voice: while she does not have a very strong voice, she sounds like no one and that´s is something rare. I´m glad her delivers to be in her natural way instead of another operatic female singer of the day, which might have had gotten this band too close to dozens of other gothic metal combos. The instrumental parts are as good as, with several great duets/duels between guitars and keyboards. The latter were played by Constantin Glantz. He is the mastermind behind all this, having writing all the lyrics, most of the music and also providing the sound effects and weird male vocals. His playing is very personal, with some fine lines and origianl solos.

The band plays like seasoned professionals and they might be very big if they keep exploring those wonderful sounds the way they do. Their songwriting is superb: all the tracks are very good, helped and enhanced by the excellent production and the tasteful arrangements. Very melodic, very well done and performed. Israel now has a prog band that knows how to bring their culture to the world in a common language. I´m looking forward to hear their next releases.

Conclusion: delightful listening! A band to watch for. Final rating: 4 strong stars.