Sonic Syndicate have had a few years to reconcile and think about their direction over the last few years. They went on a temporary hiatus in 2011, and regrouped in 2013 to numerous line-up changes and the announcement of a new album. It was an announcement that nobody seemed to particularly care about, as in all honesty things couldn’t have gotten much worse for the band after the tragic release that was 2010’s ‘We Rule the Night‘. But then the announcement followed that Mr. Bjorn ‘Speed’ Strid of Soilwork would be making an appearance on the album, and if Sonic Syndicate could convince a Gothenburg legend to feature surely the record that would be self-titled effort ‘Sonic Syndicate‘ would have some redeeming features?
With all the main songwriters of Sonic Syndicate departing after the hiatus, songwriting duties have been left to young guitarist Robin Sjunnesson. Quite a weight to carry with the core focus in mind to bring Sonic Syndicate back to it’s 2006 prominence. The album makes an immediate promising start with some fast, crunching and well structured songwriting with ‘Day of the Dead‘ – and just as it seemed that Sonic Syndicate was heading in the right direction – then came the lyrics. For the genre it seems Sonic Syndicate want to play a part in, they are some of the most unpoetic and silly lyrics that could possibly be on a metal track.
As the album progresses it is evident that Sonic Syndicate have taken a darker approach to songwriting and production, however this is the only consistent element throughout the album. ‘Black Hole Halo‘ and ‘Before You Finally Break‘ (featuring Mr. Strid) are the stand out tracks that build the foundations on which Sonic Syndicate should progress on mixing their old Gothenburg sound with a heavier modern approach, but instead the band decide to play with too many influential elements such as the Slayer-esque ‘See What I See‘ and the interlude of ‘It Takes Me‘ seemingly written to the background of Celine Dion. All the tracks seem to have one prolific element completely different from the other filled with a lot of drop C-spamming and one melodic Gothenburg riff spread throughout.
It is a good effort on Sonic Syndicate’s part, and absolutely better than the band’s previous effort – but you can’t help feel that it falls flat trying to a guilty medium between commercial-infused ‘We Rule The Night‘ and debut release ‘Eden Fire‘. Not a release to let you down, and this release certainly does have it’s market – but Sonic Syndicate really do need to find their sound if they plan to be a top player in the commercial metal scene like it seems they are trying to do.
