Customer Reviews

True Self

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, this is the Import release. If you've stumbled here by accident, you can find the cheaper domestic release at Amazon too.

What a strange circle: Dave Williams of Drowning Pool tragically passes, and Jason Jones joins Drowning Pool with a new sound...growling, unlistenable vocals; Ryan McCombs leaves Soil for "family reasons", and AJ Cavalier joins Soil with a new sound...growling, unlistenable vocals; Jason Jones leaves Drowning Pool, and Ryan McCombs joins Drowning Pool. Dave Williams, unfortunately, will not be back to join Soil after AJ leaves to complete the circle.

And, hey, AJ may never leave which will likely suit fans that enjoy bands that angrily shout all the lyrics through their songs. But if you loved Soil's Redefined you might not even like True Self.

The problem with True Self is it's not really Soil. I simply do not get why bands that have a major change in their line-up keep the same band name. Of course it works sometimes (Iron Maiden, AC/DC), but it mostly fails.

AJ at times actually does sound like early Ryan on the early Soil disks. And AJ does have a good voice when he "sings" instead of growls...but he predominantly growls. And there's a market for that growling vocal style. I am not in that market. AJ's growling on True Self is a far cry from Ryan's clearly sung anthem rockers on Soil's 5 star Redefined release.

If you're looking for the Soil that you knew that belted out songs with anthem choruses like "Redefined", "Cross My Heart", "Pride" & "Suffering", you might need to look to Drowning Pool's upcoming release with Ryan...because they are not here with AJ.

I hate to bash the new guy, but the frontman makes the band. If this is Soil's True Self, I'd say that they need to Redefine.

I bought this cd the day it came out. I knew the band had changed singers, but I had heard "Fight for Life" and "Give It Up" on their website before the cd came out and I liked those two songs. If you add the songs "Forever Dead" and "Last Chance" and "One Last Song" its a decent album. The biggest problem is that it has too many fillers. But this is still enjoyable to listen to.

While many say Soil with RYAN era is the band's finest moments I would say True Self hangs right with any of those albums.The obvious new addition of AJ CAVALIER gave the band a more well rounded sound from being heavy as well as even more melodic.Songs like "Hear Me" are more mature than most of the bands past tracks.The guitar riffs of Shaun Glass & Adam Zadel are on fire and prove the band is firing on all cylinders.If you want TRUE rock look no further as I know this is a hidden gem.

Soil has returned to give metal a much needed shot of grownup aggression. First off Ryan is a better singer than A.J. But A.J. does a great job on the new record. I have always loved that soil writes lyrics from an adult point of view. I'm 34 years old so screaming about mommy and daddy holds no use for me. Like their masterpiece Redefine ( greatest love song ever with lyrics that will make you cry) this cd has the awesome pick me up asking your wife,child, or both if their be there when the world goes wrong. Other standouts included true self,last chance,jaded, and forever dead with guest vocals from burton c. bell (fear factory)! One last thing you have to admire how soil lost their singer and still managed to beat drowning pool to getting new music to the public.

This was a polarizing CD for me compared to previous efforts. I'm having a hard time adjusting ot the new singers voice.

I do really like tracks 4 & 5 (The Last Chance & True Self).
The rest of the tracks I just couldn't get into.

Sadly, this might be my last Soil purchase but there is a silver lining.

The latest Drowning Pool CD is worth a listen if you've liked previous Soil releases. That is where singer Ryan McCombs is at now.
I wouldn't say that DP is as good as the previous Soil efforts but it is good and shows promise. There is a ray of hope for even better rock to come!

What a strange circle: Dave Williams of Drowning Pool tragically passes, and Jason Jones joins Drowning Pool with a new sound...growling, unlistenable vocals; Ryan McCombs leaves Soil for "family reasons", and AJ Cavalier joins Soil with a new sound...growling, unlistenable vocals; Jason Jones leaves Drowning Pool, and Ryan McCombs joins Drowning Pool. Dave Williams, unfortunately, will not be back to join Soil after AJ leaves to complete the circle.

And, hey, AJ may never leave which will likely suit fans that enjoy bands that angrily shout all the lyrics through their songs. But if you loved Soil's Redefined you might not even like True Self.

The problem with True Self is it's not really Soil. I simply do not get why bands that have a major change in their line-up keep the same band name. Of course it works sometimes (Iron Maiden, AC/DC), but it mostly fails.

AJ at times actually does sound like early Ryan on the early Soil disks. And AJ does have a good voice when he "sings" instead of growls...but he predominantly growls. And there's a market for that growling vocal style. I am not in that market. AJ's growling on True Self is a far cry from Ryan's clearly sung anthem rockers on Soil's 5 star Redefined release.

If you're looking for the Soil that you knew that belted out songs with anthem choruses like "Redefined", "Cross My Heart", "Pride" & "Suffering", you might need to look to Drowning Pool's upcoming release with Ryan...because they are not here with AJ.

I hate to bash the new guy, but the frontman makes the band. If this is Soil's True Self, I'd say that they need to Redefine.

I got to listening to soil because a neighbor told me I would like it after learning of my tastes and he was right.I was getting into drowning pool a few years ago,so this was a natural step after DP picked up their lead singer.If you like good solid sensible hard rock, you'll like drowning pool.

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Soil live in Atlanta Georgia where they were opening for Mushroomhead and let Me tell you that this band is going places despite any difficulties they may have in the past. I bought this cd straight from the merchandise vendor and listened to it on the ride home from the concert and it was almost as good as watching them live. If you're a diehard underground and mainstream metal fan you'll love this cd and all of their others. The only thing that sucked about Soil at the show is that their merchandise sold so quick after their set that I couldn't buy all of their cds so here I am at good old Amazon to order every cd they have ever produced instead!

Mistress Malice

this is truly a good start for a new vocalist to a good band. AJ cavalier has the same gritty vocals as Soil's previous singer, but with a wider range. And, with a new singer, comes a heavier, more agressive form of music to fit in with the changing tides of the music scene. Soil kicks out some seriously heavy jams with this release. It should be interesting to see what ex singer ryan mccombs now does with drowning pool. 5/5

Favorite songs: "Fight for life," "The Last Chance," "True Self," "Hear Me"

Well here we go with the new just about everything soil album, first of all replacing a singer like RM is always going to be nigh on impossible to do and I have seen the band live on several occasions, I can say that live they were better before and on record they are well........not as good unfortunately as before.

Still this record has "moments" of some great work on it. I just cant help thinking that with RM still in the picture this disc would have been so much better.

I think that if you never heard the old soil you would think this is great but if you did hear the old stuff it aint what you wanted.