Well, this was a nice surprise. Soulthreat is the one-man project of the relatively young Pius Grave, vocalist of the German deathsters Minatory. The band was formed in the cold and early days of 2008, and this, the debut, was finished in the equally cold and dark end of 2008. Mr. Grave, fitting name by the way, has handled his limited access to resources in an excellent way, and don’t get scared by the fact that the drums and synthesizers are both programmed. I was of course pretty skeptical towards this when I gave this the first spin, but this guy knows what he’s doing, and when you’ve spun it a bit, you will not notice much of it. Storm of Time was recorded at a home-studio which gives limited access to a good drum-sound, and I actually prefer them programmed rather than ragged and out-there. I somehow pictured a plain death metal record, and although there is some firm proof of death here, there are also tracks of the symphonic blackened metal we all know and love.

As I said, I approached this with a good amount of skepticism, mainly because I feared that the synthetic drums would make this sound rather lifeless. Quite on the contrary though, this instantly grabbed me as something I should pay more attention to. The building synth-laden intro of Honest Scorn increases to a nice guitar melody, mid-paced blast-beating and Grave’s grim grinding. Although the drums sound out of place at first, you’ll be able to adapt after experiencing this as a whole. The vocal work here is rather remarkable actually. I went in expecting something varying soulless to average growls by a hopeful youth. The fact that they turned out to be the best part of this album, slapped my pre-judgmental face once again. The ravenous grinding is backed by atmospheric, well-balanced and creepy layers of keys which definitely are a nod towards the symphonic part of modern black metal. Way too often a thing that could easily cause harm, and aside from some exceptions where it sounds a little sloppy (don’t forget that it’s programmed), this is very well performed. The other highlight here is the guitar-work. “It all starts with an encouraging melody, which I’ll elaborate on”. Everyone who’s been in a band, or is writing songs by themselves knows how hard it is to remember a cool melody you came up with and actually work on the riffs from there. Pius Grave seems to have a pretty firm hold of this ability, since every riff is build up around an often ripping introducing melody. His guitar sound is thick and heavily distorted, especially emphasizing the palm muted notes and the cutting lead work. The guy actually has a guitar-workshop on his website which is pretty cool.

Even though the songs seem to follow a basic formula, there is still enough variation to acknowledge this as something you definitely should lend your attention to. Every melody is different from the other, the tempo is desirable shifty while the overall atmosphere remains the same. The dark keyboard chords are constantly fueling the mood with the demanded amount of pitch-black energy. As far as the lyrical content goes, Grave mainly seem to focus on personal stuff, and can mainly be described as aggressive against certain individuals and religion. Nothing breathtaking by the way they are written or anything, but they are however packed with emotions which gives the music a little extra.

There are, without any doubt, lots of positive stuff to say about this release. There are however some negative factors that keeps it from getting top score. The fact that the drums sound pretty lifeless and strange at times, especially the cymbals, They’re not delivering that final crushing blow you’ll be wanting which is enough of a reason to dock this some points. The synth is, considering the fact that that is also programmed, sometimes very skippy and makes some odd changes in power and volume. The excuse that this is not meant as a live-band is a little pale, but accepted in addition to the financial problems first-timers experiences. I hope that any label that notices this will look past it, contact the man, and offer him their support for the next record which could very well be another gem, especially with real drums and keyboards.

I’m usually taking my time adapting to new stuff. This did however click pretty damn quickly with me, even though my thoughts had prepared me for the exact opposite. If you like your death and/or black metal melodic and catchy to a certain extent, then you should definitely give this a shot. This is a gem that will be hard to get hold of unless you’re contacting the band yourself, and please, if you like what you hear on their MySpace (Listen to Storm of Time), support the band so that it’ll be easier to finance another and improved release in terms of quality and equipment.