Born of two members from
Living Sacrifice, the unholy trio of
Soul Embraced embraces death metal's characteristic musical angst with a Southern rock flavor. As expected, the group's standard fare of grindcore vocals, rapid-fire pentatonic guitar blasts, and polyrhythmic drum figures is on demonic display. Yet this time out,
Soul Embraced works within a familiar pop song format that leaves plenty of room for melody and chord changes readily known to arena rockers. The bridge of "Angels With Raven Hearts" brazenly adapts a major key progression to the group's lethal canon. "Buried In" and "The Cold Stares of Dead Eyes" are two cuts that tread modern rock radio waters by way of Chad Moore's crooning and Rocky's guitar breaks, which neatly pick out a few blue notes à la
Eric Clapton. "Scars Remain" opens with a motif dangerously close to a clichéd air-guitar anthem from the 1980s; however, the commercial slate is wiped clean as soon as the first verse kicks up. In a genre that thrives on formula and repetition,
Soul Embraced adds a welcome blast of soul on
This Is My Blood. ~ Tom Semioli