Viper Solfa
Carving an Icon

A band consisting of known names from the Norwegian metal scene, like Trail of Tears whom I wasn’t the biggest fan ever of, this band wants to carve an icon and make themselves immortal. The namedropping goes on forever in the press release that states many things but they forgot that a good-looking cover artwork and a cool logo also is a good promotion. There is no doubt however, that these guys have some good experience and has done some great stuff in the past but I don’t really care about the past as it is the present that matter so how about it?

The musical style is difficult to put a simple label on; they span some wider area even though their main style of choice seems to be death metal. There are growls and there are clean female vocals, it reminds me of Trail of Tears that I reviewed some years ago. Strong production and a varied sound, the songs vary a lot over the album and that is a good thing in this case. The male vocals are very boring though, while the female ones are very strong and adds character to the album.

I think they have a great idea for their music, but the idea is not turned into a great album. The album lacks an attention grabber, you hear it, try to get to know it and in the end you forget it – that is the story of Viper Solfa and their icon. Somehow I think that they didn’t carve their icon well enough, the look isn’t interesting enough to thrill and mystify the music fan. One thing is that Ronny Thorsen has a very uninteresting growly voice, just like when I heard him in Trail of Tears and that is a big letdown for these guys. The songs are not that brilliant either and none of them really catch my attention, and in the end I feel like it is a good idea wasted.

So, should we just dismiss this album? I’m not sure but there weren’t that many reviews on the interweb and that is one sign of an album that is either poorly promoted or not interesting enough for those who only write about good albums and I know that the album is promoted well so it isn’t the former. If you like Trail of Tears and their stuff you’ll probably find this album good as well, if not you might as well jump – to another album.

HHHHHHH