Soen - Atlantis (2022)

cover

Hailing from Sweden (mainly), Soen is a Progressive Metal band formed by Martín López (ex-Opeth, ex-Amon Amarth) on drums and Joel Ekelöf on vocals. Having Steve Di Giorgio on bass at some point, this band has been labeled as a super group and they quite live up to their branding with five excellent full-length releases under their belts. With “Atlantis” the band’s strips down their sound (a bit) and delivers a very unique semi-acoustic experience with extra vocals and string arrangements.

As part of a live DVD release and special occasions live set, “Atlantis” delivers the band’s greatest hits in a more intimate and elegant way. We have tracks like “Antagonist” and “Trails” with additional arrangements giving them an extra heartfelt vibe and nicely highlighting Joel’s charismatic lead vocals. Other songs like “Jinn” have been enhanced with some lush Middle-eastern inspired string arrangements alongside the band’s commanding distorted guitars.

Some of our favorite tracks like “Monarch” take a complete new life with the addition of female vocals and very dramatic additional arrangements, making this track even more emotional than before. Other songs like “Lucidity”, “Savia” and “Lotus” sound even better than before with some tempo adjustments and jazzier interludes. We only listened to the audio-only part of this release and yet we felt transported to the live show.

Overall, “Atlantis” sets a completely new standard when it comes to intimate and stripped down live-recordings from bands. The songs are very nicely arranged and complemented to deliver their original emotions but with some considerable enhancement, some of them even being better than the original versions. With the band finally making it over to North America in winter of 2022, the timing of this release cannot be any better for fans of the band on this side of the world.

Band: Soen Album: Atlantis

Label: Silver Lining Music

Release: November 18th, 2022

Homepage Facebook

Genre: Progressive Metal

Country: Sweden/International

Rating: 97/100
Year: 
Label: 
Genre: 

Recent Image Galleries