Review:
Solemn Vow is a Christian metalcore act hailing from Mississippi. From all the information I could find on this band, The American Dream seems to be their first major release.
Once again I’m treated to an album off the little label from the Midwest, Wounded Records. Judging from all the locations these bands come from and their overall message, it seems that the label is focused on signing area Christian talent. With two records down and one to go, I’m already noticing a trend that it’s more about the message for the label, than the quality of the musical content. Solemn Vow is worlds better than the last record I listened to from Wounded Records (Neviah Nevi’s Tales Of Terror) but that isn’t saying much. I could have made a better record than that all by myself and I have no talent outside some mediocre drumming.
Solemn Vow seems to be complacent in adding nothing to the mix in the ever stale world of metalcore. I have to believe that this band isn’t “for the girls” because that, to me, would defeat the purpose of them being good Christian boys. Or maybe they know something we don’t about all the fine Church tail of the Midwest. Regardless these guys write cliché metalcore for that audience of sheep that eat up cheesy music so easily. The core of their music is your standard melodic metalcore. It’s simple riffs for kids who can’t really play metal and full of raspy mid to high screaming. When singer Kyle Jeffcoat, or maybe it’s the guitarist Jeff Perry, break into their clean vocals the band jumps right into playing something that is borderline pop-punk. Every time this happens it takes the song into an entirely new direction and not in a good way. To cap it all off they decide to dabble in deathcore from time to time. This doesn’t make sense to me at all. Christian deathcore seems like an oxymoron to me.
Turning my attention to the lyrics I found myself reading what I figured I would get with a Christian outing. The first two tracks focus on their faith and doing what they can to make it to Heaven. That’s all well and good but then the 180 happens and I’m reading about how they are going to send me to my maker and what is going to happen on the day of the apocalypse. Throw something about losing a girl, some political views, and you have the bulk of “the message” the band is trying to convey.
If this band lands a spot on a bigger Christian bands tour they will attract a following. They can cohesively write a song and they are creating music that is easily eaten up but the mainstream audience that thinks they are listening to underground music. In the two years that I worked at the Trocadero, I’d have to say atleast half of the shows I worked were of this nature and they were all packed. A band like Underoath would serve them well in attracting an audience. However, aside from that crowd of people I can’t recommend this to anyone or atleast not anyone that I know.
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