SOiL – Picture Perfect

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For their second album without distinctive vocalist Ryan McCombs (now Drowning Pool), SOiL this time also have to move on without guitarist and principle songwriter Shaun Glass, who left after the True Self album in 2007. Opener Tear It Down recalls some of the old SOiL sound but is really closer to the harder side of Shinedown‘s recent work, while Lesser Man and particularly title track Picture Perfect are stylistically closer to traditionally more melodic alt-metal outfits like Seether, Nonpoint and Shinedown’s more common sound, than to the usual SOiL riff-based aggression, a feeling which is excentuated by emotionless ballad Surrounded. Like It Is is a real SOiL riff, and AJ Cavalier’s aggressive voice is harsher than McCombs’s, but his melodic tone is softer, giving him greater range, but this is the only time the real SOiL comes through. Wasted owes a lot to rising southern metal stars Black Stone Cherry, but too many similar, weak tracks, lacking in aggression and emotion (Falter, Anymore, Last Wish, Too Far Away) make the second half of the album a mire of mediocrity quickly relegated to background noise. There are occasional glimmers that the band could happily continue at the standard they achieved with McCombs and Glass still on board, but there’s too much melodic radio fodder here for the hints to take hold.

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Alternative, Quick.Play Reviews, SOiL