ALBUM REVIEW: Fading Failing Ruin – Solace
New Jersey’s stoner/doom kings SOLACE celebrate a momentous anniversary this year, 30 years as a band, with their fifth full length album Fading Failing Ruin. This latest opus sees the band return triumphantly with a collection of nine epic songs that salute their past but forge a new future as well. Over those 30 years, the band’s recorded output has been a little sporadic for a band who have been around for three decades but the only thing that matters is that SOLACE are in the here and now with this formidable album, and it showcases the sheer power of the music of SOLACE.
SOLACE formed from the ashes of early 90s metal band GODSPEED, who burned brightly during their existence. GODSPEED backed Bruce Dickinson on a cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath for the BLACK SABBATH tribute album, Nativity In Black. They even toured with SABBATH themselves, along with CATHEDRAL. These being particular highlights, and with their doom/stoner vibe, you can definitely see where the roots of SOLACE started.
It is with that vibe and their roots that SOLACE have continued to dominate and their big riffs and formidable grooves are in full force on this new album, as the band crush all in their path on each and every one of the tracks on Fading Failing Ruin. The epic doom and hazy stoner elements blend well with the more traditional metal sound, which results in moments that are catchy as well as triumphant, and this commences as soon as the opening notes of opening track Spiral Will erupt.
From then on in, it’s a riotous explosion of metal and all that SOLACE represent with tracks like Fettered To A Stone, Beyond The Blow and Every Day Is A Loaded Gun, which are all huge sounding and even bigger in their execution. Meanwhile the more streamlined Culling The Herd cuts through with an urgent energy.
Alongside these crackers, the album is anchored with two mammoth tracks that really personify exactly what makes SOLACE such a great band. A God Changes His Plans harks back to the bands previous incarnation as GODSPEED, with a punk/hardcore energy alongside fearsome stoner riffs. Wraths Object (The Big Fall) starts with a stirringly emotive instrumental that evokes memories of SABBATH‘s immortal Planet Caravan, although coming off with a much more tense and urgent vibe before morphing into a doom laden behemoth of a song.
Fading Failing Ruin is a captivating record from start to finish, and as the album’s final track Ridden comes to an end, you will want to immerse yourself in the world of SOLACE once again, as it is a world that all lovers of metal will find peace in. SOLACE are back with a vengeance once again and prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that their powerful music is here and it’s here to stay forever. 30 years in the game has primed them to be where they are right now, and Fading Failing Ruin and the songs contained within are testament to the power and legacy of the New Jersey doomsters .
Rating: 8/10
Fading Failing Ruin is out now via Magnetic Eye Records.
Like SOLACE on Facebook.