** A Rrepost from My Bbsession
and Guilty Pleasures Blog
with an update at the end...**
Soil and Eclipse Review
Hello wonderful people
Have you ever heard of a band from
San Francisco named Soil and Eclipse? If not you should (attempt) to look them
up because they’re kind of hard to find especially my favorite album of theirs,
Archetype, is damn near impossible to find. Putting that nitpicks aside, I’m
reviewing the album Archetype and other songs I’ve heard while browsing the
interwebs.
They don’t have a Wikipedia, but
they do have a Facebook, which has a bio page that I am going to use to tell
you about the band. Jay Tye is their vocalist; G.W. Childs IV are the members
of Soil and Eclipse. They formed in 1996 under the name Oracle of Delphi in
Hawaii when Jay and Childs started collaborating to fill their local music
scene with the goal of filling their local music scene with more eclectic
music. Fun Fact, they were in the army when they started up their band, they
performed live shows on their downtime and gained a following in the Hawaiian
Goth enthusiasts. In 1997, COP international heard their demo tape and wanted
to meet the brilliant minds behind the band, and after the magical time of
negotiation, they were signed to COP International. They changed their name due
to random debating over the way it sounded so someone came up with Soil and
Eclipse, Jay and G.W. thought it suited the band’s style of music better than
Oracle Of Delphi so that’s the origin behind the name of Soil and Eclipse.
Their discography is short but
impressive, their first album recorded shortly after COP International signed
the band to their label, has the lovely name of Necromancy. It was co-produced
by Rommel Regulation, (Razed in Black and Transmutator) and G.W. Childs the
album was quick to get positive response from the world due to tracks like
“False Prophet” and “Rejoice,” they received extensive air play across clubs
and radio programs throughout America and Europe. Their second album, Meridian
debuted after their time in the military ended with honorable discharge,
sending them back to their respective homes of San Diego and Dallas. For a
year, they worked on writing new material and when they met up in San
Francisco, Maurice Jackson from Nerve Factor helped produce their new album.
Four weeks after its release Meridian went to the top ten in German charts and
stayed there for two weeks, the album shows Soil and Eclipse in a more emotional
light and ‘showcases the vocal talents of Jay.’
There’s a peak at why I love this album.
How can you look at
that picture and deny how awesome that is?
Their third album, Archetype is a
mix of original works and remixes by Rommell Regulation, Audio Paradox, and
M.O. Archetype contains very diverse content as well as sound and this has to
be the hardest album to find anywhere. Itunes doesn’t have it; certain songs
are hard to track down as well, like “Whispering trees.” I’ll get into that
later…
In the year 2002 Purity, the album
that introduced to the world to their version of O Magnum Mysterium debuted.
The album also gave the world songs like ‘Bridges’ and ‘Sentence me’ the
material benefits from the near perfect production done on the album by Count
Zero and the remixes by once again Razed In Black’s Rommell Regulations,
Cassandra Complex, M.O., and Deathline International. “Pretend” and “Chains”
provided the sensitive side of the band while providing the awesome club
tracks.
Last of their discography (until
they release a new album) is 2008’s “the Mirror.” This album depicted as a more
emotional album, drawing from within rather from the outside.
My Opinions and
A mini review for Archetype’s Whispering Trees
My opinion of the band, they’re
awesome. Why are they awesome? Vocal layering and the Razed in Black remixes. I
absolutely adore vocal layering and they utilize that technique to the best of
their abilities in songs like Whispering Trees, Sentence me (Razed in Black
Remix), and Exile (Return 2 Glory mix). The second technique used to make my
ears squeal with joy is their musical abilities and the awesome production work
of the various producers on their albums. They do a great job creating
interesting beats and melodies to accompany their vocal harmonies and melodies.
To sum that sentence up they know how to create an interesting song with great
lyrics and backing music to lead it.
The shining star that exemplifies
that previous paragraph would have to be Whispering Trees, one of the difficult
songs to find because it is on their Archetype album and that album seems to
have disappeared from the internet. The verses start out rather quiet, but it
builds until the chorus happens and unleashes what might be the most painfully
inspiring lyrics ever.
“Reaching up for the sun
They say I shed my fame
For a world full of solid dreams
Take your judgment and cast it
aside
I chose my fate in a world full of
prophecy.”
When I first encountered the song,
I was highly discouraged that I couldn’t locate it on the internet and I nearly
forgot about it until AOL radio reminded me that I indeed know who Soil and
Eclipse are, and I like them a lot. I went hunting around and found the album
and I happily listened to it for a week straight before I realized there are
actual lyrics. That’s the only real downside to this song; the lyrics were very
hard to hear at first. Moving on from that, after the first chorus it calms
down and then rebuilds the suspense into the chorus again. As tricky as it is
to find this song is the one I would introduce people to because of how amazing
it is. I did some digging around (asking them on Facebook) if the song is
supposed to be sad, and they said yeah it’s supposed to be sad.
“You’re pretty spot on with whispering trees. I
penned the lyrics at kind of turning point in my life. I think g. was
experiencing something similar so it’s really has a sense of melancholy. At its
core, for me it’s about leaving the past behind accepting my faults and
realizing the potential the future holds.”
The response I got from Jay Tye via facebook message when I asked a while back about the mood of the song because there was a point in time where I had no idea the song had lyrics. I don't know how I didn't hear them at first but I didn't and then when I did I realized they're slightly depressing. While we’re on the topic of Archetype, I’ll address the whole
album hopefully in one whole paragraph otherwise I’ll never stop.
Is Archetype my favorite Soil and
Eclipse album? I don’t know because I don’t own all of them yet. I only have
Purity and a few songs off of Necromancy. My recent purchase of Women and Satan
First (Wumpscut’s new album) has left my account short of money and I’m not
going to bootleg albums I found… even if it means dealing with Itunes and their
crappy services. Archetype however is a decent album compared to Purity. Now
there’s nothing wrong with Purity, in contrast to that statement, Purity has
the Sentence Me remix done by the amazing Razed in Black. It also has O’Magnum
Mysterium, which happens to be the first song I heard from Soil and Eclipse on
AOL Radio. I can’t compare it to Necromancy and the Mirror because I don’t have
those albums as I previously mentioned, but replay wise Archetype wins and it’s
not because of Whispering Trees, the remix for Exile (return to glory) is my
second favorite song on Archetype. My third favorite song is King of Lies,
because it has one of my favorite things in a song, some kind of chanting thing
in the beginning that send my ears straight to cloud nine. I listen to that
album more than Purity. With that stated, I should move on from Archetype and
to the next album that I have more than two songs on my Itunes list.
My Thoughts on Purity
Purity contains the song that
introduced me to Soil and Eclipse, O’Magnum Mysterium. It also contains an
amazing remix of Sentence me by Razed in Black. The original version is also on
the Purity album and it’s a good song but the remix makes it slightly better
with the slightly faster tempo and added beats going on following the buildup
in the beginning of the song. As of right now, I own “Sentence Me,” “Sentence
Me (Razed in black mix),” “Chains,” and “O’Magnum Mysterium” and with how often
I find myself listening to these songs, it should be better than Archetype, but
that is not the case. It has nothing to do with the quality of the songs;
they’re great I love the four that I have currently heard. Yes, Chains is the
sad song of the four but it doesn’t have the same effect as Whispering Trees.
My conclusion on the album itself
is incomplete. It will remain that way until I buy the rest of Purity so I can
transfer it to my IPod and listen to it while I’m not concentrating on
reviewing it. That’s when I form my ideas and insight.
Conclusion
Listen to Soil and Eclipse they
are a great band and deserve all the exposure they can get. I hope Archetype
goes back up on Itunes at some point in time because it is amazing. Soil and
Eclipse have a very promising future in remaining a band I listen to for a long
time, right next to Assemblage 23, Wumpscut, and Enya because my musical tastes
are highly diverse.
~Pugsly~
** Update, as of 12/2/12 Archetype is back on iTunes as far as I know. I saw it a while back so it should still be there. GO BUY IT do not bootleg even if the money is going to some grubby company this album is too good to bootleg.
Also I now own a few songs from The Mirror and they are amazing, if you can find a copy BUY IT because very few songs are available on the internet. Elysium Rain is the best thing ever however there are no lyric websites that recognize it's existence which is sad because it's beautiful and I don't know Latin well enough to translate by ear. Violin makes me want to learn how to play the Violin which I might start doing one day. I love the violins in that song and it's also in Latin however I might have found the translation or the lyrics for Violin somewhere in the world of the internet. I have reviewed Elysium rain despite the lack of lyrics on the internet, I did my best to play it by ear. It is on my Anniversary blog. I might upload it here as well.**
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