Following on four years worth of creative releases, Soulic Paradox launched a brand new album and a handful of original singles, to further secure their role within an artistically fearless realm.
From the latest album Awakening, Unleash Yourself marks a fierce example, and a fine introduction to the melodic embrace and distorted intensity that make up much of the band’s approach.
Celtic vibes initially appeal, a delicate yet fast-paced opening moment – paving the way for progressive rock power chords and riffs – along with an equally nostalgic vocal, mixed up-front and centre despite its refreshingly quiet contemplation.
The song has purpose lyrically, and is artistically structured to reflect this. Certain simple, poetic repeats collide with an unpredictable soundscape evolution for a style that effectively makes up its own set of rules.
From the same album, A Handful Of Beans showcases a spacious, structurally self-aware intention, ambient and mood-setting before an ultimately stylish, unsettling yet captivating vocal dynamic lures you in more closely. Intriguing and satisfying, unusual yet fitting – a definite highlight for its versatility and fearless commitment to metaphor and fragments of the absurd.
From the same album, Hero is riff-led again – hi-hats and a soulful electric guitar as things build and build to immersive levels. The hooky nature of the riff is overwhelming at first, then the song finds its feet with story, vocal dynamic, and rising intensity.
Before this album, Every Life Matters emerged during a tumultuous 2020, a mellow ballad of good intentions slightly lost amidst piano familiarity and links to a certain phrase used to deflate concern. The sound again highlights the versatile, eclectic and unexpected aura of Soulic Paradox. So too does the heavier anthem of time’s past, the dark and heavy yet melodically choir-kissed New Norms.
One last glimpse of the band at their peak, 2021’s Come Together offers a bold and well-produced stomp of a rock hit, with those unmistakable vocals at the forefront, and poetic intimacy juxtaposed by distortion and the raw crash of the drums.
In every case, Soulic Paradox hold close to freedom of expression, and while there are threads to recognise throughout, their sound is ultimately unconfined and uninhibited.
Check out Soulic Paradox on Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube & their Website.
