Soul Destroyer

SOUL DESTROYER – "FACELESS" (Casket)

Every so often a new sound or subgenre is pioneered by true innovators. Soul Destroyer are one such phenomenon. Rather than a dance act gradually absorbing punk and metal influences as The (once mighty) Prodigy did back in the day, Soul Destroyer have arrived where they are by the opposite route. This talented threepiece are punks and metallers who are bored with what is currently being peddled as flavour of the month by the industry out there (having become disillusioned through playing in various other rock bands). There really is something for everyone on this Dance-Metal album, if not ALL things for anyone who loves music and the possibilities that exist for those who are not afraid to experiment, whether they be fans of Ministry, Electric 6, Clawfinger, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Saxon….! I guarantee that even if you just hear this album once, you WILL catch yourself humming or singing at least one of the tunes unexpectedly. The guilty parties are: 2face (programming, vocals), 138 (guitar, vocals) and d-kay (percussion, vocals, korg electribe) and their basic premise is an irreverent diatribe, ranting over guitar driven mechanical percussion beats, all spiced up and fucked up through a cornucopia of keyboard, pedal and vocal effects so that no two tracks sound the same but with glorious melodies and even…gulp…vocal harmonies on occasion. No, it’s true - I will explain:

The CD cover suggests a sinister intent, with a nice red neon backlit silhouette, based on the axe wielding character from Shane Meadow’s cult classic "Dead Man’s Shoes", challenging the listener with arms outstretched. The inner sleeve photo of the band adorned with their altogether disturbing masks does nothing to reassure you that you are in for a comfortable ride either. Good. The intro is beautifully calm and lulls you in before the iron bar bombast of "Sleeping with Ghosts" smacks you in your complacent face. This wake up call is one of the most brutal tracks on the album topped off with a superb widdly widdly guitar solo and Prodigy style bass-line insert to give you time to lick your wounds occasionally before the more upbeat "A Corpse and an Alibi" steps in to comfort you with its electronic refrain and melodically sung chorus. The catchy guitar licks and keyboard intro to "Tread on Me" soon pull you in to a mesmerizing track with the most sublime and uplifting Country and Western slide guitar solo I have ever heard – and it works! Lyrically at odds with the tone of the happy-go-lucky music you will find yourself singing along (to your fellow tube/train/bus passengers(?)) "you tread on me and I will fuck you good!" Quite right. "Sun Going Down" sees another Prodigy type intro soon taken up by an insistent, pumping mechanical beat that just delights the soul, despite the song’s subject matter (a plane crash!) Electronica wizardry next up with "Jackshit" and some lovely soft backing vocals…aaah lovely (about mugging and rape…oh). I think you get the idea by now. Soul Destroyer love to antagonize and shock lyrically as well as challenging preconceptions musically. "Crackpipe Limousine" is an absolute stormer that rocks up next and blasts you away in a straight up rock and roll sing-a-long with some crazy guitar solos. "Happiness" is more of a straight up rocker with nice dance beats and hard guitar, funny lyrics too (I won’t spoil it for you though). Anyone who checks out www.myspace.com/souldestroyerband will be aware of the hilarious but cringeworthy schadenfreude video that accompanies the grungy and bass heavy metal of "Die Tonight" – the vocals nicely scuzzy and vindictive, venting displeasure at the state of the metal scene in general. "Touch" is a rocker with a prominent guitar and keyboard signature, backed up by catchy vocals and a killer chorus. An AC/DC-esque intro feeds into the d-kay territory of "Freak Like Me" with clean sing-a-long vocals and more effects than I could shake a stick at boosting this more relaxed number. "I am Sadness" reminds me of a ZZ Top track ("Heaven, Hell or Houston") and it is the only thing that threatened the top rating of this CD as it plods along with highly distorted and slowed down vocals. But hell – even this one is growing on me, partly because I know what is coming next and so all is forgiven: crowd pleasing album closer "I Hate You". This tourettes-fuelled shocker is a massive hit single just waiting to be immediately banned! This is a shame because it is a brilliant and upbeat, happy tune that is well executed and conveys a message that we have all felt at some point in our lives. It just happens to rejoice in the f word… and the s word… oh and the taboo c word. Nevermind – just do yourself a favour, take a not very subtle hint and buy this album. (10/10)
- Splizz magazine 61

Coming at you from an oblique angle Soul Destroyer blend the Prodigy style of beats, loops and hypnotic lyrical rhythms with old skool metal riffs and in your face energy plus a touch of the macabre feel about the whole thing which adds to an addictive blend. This debut offering of thirteen Interesting songs will find a fruitful niche amongst those who don’t like to be pigeon holed, if you’re a sheep you won’t like this. - Rock 3 Radio

This London based trio (line-up: lead singer/ programmer 2face , backing singer/ guitarist 138 , and backing singer/ percussionist and Korg Electribe handler d-Kay ) got together earlier last year, and spent most of 2006 writing/ programming their first collections of songs. They set out on their hometown's club circuit in early 2007, immediately setting the stages aflame! Live, they are apparently a weird and wild lot, all dressed in the same dark suit 'n' tie wearing a see-through mask which deforms their facial expressions enough to create a ghoolish effect, the three members of the band dance in a demented way (no live drummer, a lap-top taking care of that part of the "performance"), constantly confronting their audiences. One of their recent gigs saw the band supporting Deathstars at London's Islington Academy venue to a frantic crowd, and that fantastic reaction alone attracted a hype attention from several British music magazins who went on to do a feature on the act, and from radio stations who started to play the band's music on a regular basis.
Their music is somewhat different from the norm, combining old school Metal riffs with breakbeats, loops and the occasional sample. If you're asking for a categoriisation, I'd say you would be safest to put the trio into the Electric/Electronic Industrial Rock/ Metal genre...which in its own leaves still enough room for interpretation. The thing is, when you're listening to the album you'll find yourself thinking you've got the guys pegged after the first 5 songs, and then they come along with a track like "Jackshit" ! Of a very much calmer mood overall, both vocally and in the guitar department (which is reduced to background, somewhat eth eric but really very atmosph eric al slide guitar), the main focus is on the pre-programmed synth noises. In the same calmer vein but in a very depressed mood, the band offers the truely disturbingly huge (I mean, you need to héar that track in order to understand the actual beauty this song contains...beauty in the horrible truthfulness of this bleak expression of deeply depressed feelings – and while I'm writing these words, I'm actually feeling a knot forming in my throat) "I Am Sadness" : guitar on this track is dissimulated in pedal effects, voice deformed in vocoder. Overall however, the mood is "heavier" than that, and somewhat comparable to such Industrial great like KMFDM , Ministry , etc...with that difference perhaps that SD actually grooves in a more Rocking way than either of the aforementioned! The label itself has "...It's like The Prodigy meeting The Beasties to go beat up Saxon ..." printed on the head of their biography...which is a description I can live with, actually.
Get your kicks by listening to 4 of the songs on the 13-track album (total enjoyable length just under 43 minutes) posted at the band's Myspace profile (myspace.com/souldestroyerband). There's also a video with rather bad audio of yet another track, as played live at the above mentioned Islington Academy gig (I suppose that's cool enough to showcase the act's stage antics), plus a collage of "disaster" clips (not always of such good taste, but that's a personal feeling) to go with the track "Die Tonight" . Lyrically, the band is said to be somewhat "...pushing the boundaries of taste...". Well, when compared to the bands mentioned above, I don't see what's so different, but then this IS a British band, isn't it? And in thàt viewpoint this Soul Destroyer 's lyrics are actually somewhat (imagine me straightening my back to a stiff up-right position holding up my cup – vintage Chinese antique, of course – of tea, pinky going upwards in an disgusted/ dignified manner – posh, posh!!!) shock-ing...!
Hahah, and ain't that just de-light-ful! I won't go as far as to put this is my year-lists (yet!), but I hàve to say it comes pretty darned close (and if good fortune gives me some time with the so-called calmer release period around Christmas...enough time for me to give this album some more spins in the cd-player, I might still yet change my point of view in favour of this wonderfully delightful and fresh band!).
95/100
Tony.
- www.concreteweb.be

SOUL DESTROYER – Faceless (Casket) - Some kind of metalled-up loops, bleeps, beats ‘n big fat guitar riffs fuelling some slick enough industrial bleep pop metal hybrid. Macho lyrics, forceful stomps, The Prodigy for metalheads. Three masked men and an electronic non-human drummer. Some kind Happy Mondays go electronic thing in the middle of before we get back to The Cult meets Prodigy and tales of crack and limousines and Saxon/ZZ Top riffs and hey they’re harming no one and they're probablykindto old ladies and little puppies and if the idea of some semi-infectious macho hard-edged slick industrial pop metal gets your blood running then here’s the link, go find out for yourselves and make your own mind - Organart

"..an entirely subtlety-free soundclash between Sabbath and The Prodigy...creating an unhinged hybrid of pounding beatbox rock and anthemic, lobotomised metal." - Metal hammer

...with their fusion of laptop beats and metal riffs, Soul Destroyer have made waves in London's moshpits with their slick packaging of face distorting masks and sinister onstage personas. - NME