Review by Vladimir on May 1, 2023.

The topic of today’s discussion will be a band that could easily be characterized as “Satanic Death Metal”, which in aspects concerning visual representation, musicality and lyrical themes, goes along nicely with bands such as Deicide, Morbid Angel, Vital Remains, Incantation, Immolation etc. The band in question is SoulCarrion from Warsaw, Poland, which have recently released their self-titled EP Soulcarrion on March 31st via Godz Ov War Productions, with a total of 4 tracks.

Our journey starts with a quite dark and atmospheric track 'Path Of Hypocrisy', which wonderfully expresses its grotesque nature with its extreme tremolo riffing and drumming, along with growling vocals which are also backed up with some harsh vocals during choruses. The guitars also throw in some sick solos and dive bombs to charm up the ongoing musical slaughter. The slaughter continues with even more sick riffs and solos with the following tracks 'Piles Of Ashes' and 'Death Revelation', where the blast beats also play a big role in this manifest. What I like about these songs is the overall riffs and their arrangements, and the guitar solos which are really well composed and not some random sweep picking nonsense. The solos in particular reminded me a bit of Trey Azagthoth and Morbid Angel in general, which is probably why I became very fond of both these songs. The final track 'Salvation' has some wicked clean guitar section which builds a nice moment of tension with its eeriness, before the death metal destruction.

What I like a lot about this EP is that it’s not a case of death metal trying to sound extreme just for the sake of it, but rather actually expressing the extreme musical nature with everything all the way down to the growls, riffs, pinch harmonics, solos, dive bombs, double-bass drums and blast beats. I have to give my compliments to the riffs for actually being well thought-out and dynamic, not being generic or random, as it tends to be the common case of many modern death metal bands. Although songs do vary rhythmically and in atmosphere, they never deviate from the overall established style and go for something entirely different that just wouldn’t really work out in the end. Production-wise, the sound is very well balanced, since it doesn’t feel overproduced or thin from start to finish.

I would highly recommend this EP for the enjoyers of aforementioned death metal bands that are well-known for expressing satanic beliefs or satanic themes in general. I was skeptical whether I’d manage to get some enjoyment out of this, but in the end, it pays off so well. If SoulCarrion was more known or accessible to wider audiences, I think they could really give Vader a run for their money, because they might be among Poland’s best death metal acts that will probably have a hard time getting some recognition that they deserved.

Rating: 8.9 out of 10