The welsh metal-core band's second EP shows several aspects of improvement from the first, 'An Innocent Confession' released in 2006. However, there is room for greater things in the future.
The music, sounding similar to that of Throwdown or Testament, contains skillful and modern guitar riffs with your average drums that could be played by most fairly decent drummers. The vocals, on the other hand, somewhat let the EP down in places, while rescuing it in others - there's no real balance.
The first track - 'Tides' - begins well and gives a promising start to the EP. This is until the vocals first come in. They don't fit with the style of riff played by the guitar, and what's more they're mixed far too quietly. However, the end of the track will please the fans with the seperate parts finally coming together. It's a shame this track is so short, if the end continued for much longer, the let down of the beginning will be forgotten.
This is until the second track starts. 'Turning Point' isn't actually a bad track, but there are features in the mixing which let it down a little - for example the drums are a bit too loud and slightly ruin what is otherwise a sweet combination of guitars and vocals. Nevertheless, the song improves as it goes on, again saving it from the grips of mediocracy.
'Navigators' (Track 3) is the second best track on the EP. The vocals reach a high point during this song and for once they are mixed well enough to be understood. The drums are also further back in the mix , which is better because the listener can actually hear what is a well composed song.
Track 4, 'Clarity', is a decent track, mainly because it's just guitars, so theres not much to spoil it. Although it does seem a bit unusual to have an interlude on an EP that only contains 6 tracks.
Track 5, 'Passenger', again begins with the drums mixed too loudly, although they seem to gradually disappear into the mix as it goes on, hence ending with the drums at about the right level. The rest of the track is fairly mediocre, with the vocals again alternating between being quite weak and also rescuing the guitars in certain places, where the riffs are repetitive and somewhat uninteresting. Having said this, there are features of the guitars which show good melodic contrast and skillful playing.
'Further from the Truth' is the final and definetely the best track on the EP. If Through Solace are going to release a single any time, this should be it. All the features that let-down what could potentially be a good EP are abolished by this stage. It's a shame the other tracks didn't live up to the same standard. The composition of this song is much better and the instruments all tie together well.
Overall, this isn't bad, but it isn't brilliant. 'Further from the Truth' and 'Navigators' considerably improve the likeability of an EP on which the other tracks, whilst good in places, show signs of weakness, both in the musicality and the production.
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