Doom/death metal is often stamped as a boring and lackluster approach to slower music, yet bands like Sol give off a lot more than what most would expect from metal's highly-underrated genre. Formed by Emil Brahe, Sol reaches beyond any labeling process and brings down a tablespoon of the apocalypse with its music, and any naysayers of such a claim have one subject to choke on: Let There Be a Massacre. With no prior recording under its belt, Sol vomits forth an epic full-length in which today's doom/death standards are butchered into dog food; one that acts as a soundtrack for sadism itself. Despite it being just a debut, Let There Be a Massacre shines in on Brahe's majestic view of annihilation while simultaneously giving birth to some of the best doom/death metal ever created.Musically speaking, Sol's spinal cord fires doom-like signals to its brain on frequent occasions, which results in neurons carrying hallucination-inducing metal. The production is, of course, distorted beyond recognition and makes all guitar notes sound like Godzilla jogging through Tokyo during rush hour. Also, the drumming works off of great audio quality by adding a lot of loud attributes to the hi-hat and snare; another essential doom metal organ for heaviness. Matching this low atmosphere is Brahe's growling performance as he reaches into the dirt with his ultra-low vocals in which the ground shakes at his very presence; a clear indication his barks are downright awesome.
Let There Be a Massacre seems to have the usual doom/death qualities, so is it just another CD lacking any sense of identity? Fortunately for us, Brahe laughs at this question and takes the genre to new heights with an interesting arsenal of musical weapons unknown to such a particular sound. Targets of boredom are quickly gunned down by frequent accordion use, banjo licks, snare-only percussion, and diversified guitar patterns; now imagine how that appears with nauseating noise and drilling growls! Even a seven-minute tune has no guitars or vocals, but is actually a haven for strange instruments doing all the work. If you think all doom/death metal is boring, wait until you hear Sol's debut; you'll be blown away by all the weird crap circulating into your eardrums!
As a larger entity, Sol crams more power and originality into its supreme bombardment than any other doom/death band around. Sol launches away from a stereotypical arrangement to one of the prime frontrunners of doom metal's ever-lasting underground scene with such a fantastic record. Whether it's an accordion or earthquake-causing distortion, this one-man project has acquired ideas and compositions that conquer all neighboring efforts; there is no competition in saying "Let There Be a Massacre" redefines the doom/death metal genre entirely. Sol is unquestionably miles ahead of everyone else, and you'd be crazy to not give Emil Brahe's doom-laden release a few good listens.