Solus Rex – The Duellist’s Monologue
Band: Solus Rex
Title: The Duellist’s Monologue
Label: Obelisk Polaris Productions
Release date: September 9th, 2024
Country: Sweden
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording
Solus Rex is a solo project by Peter Svensson, a Swedish musician that is in many bands: Furnace, Void Moon, Cult of the Fox, Amaurot, Catacomb, Assassin’s Blade, and many more. I’m always amazed to see some guys being so productive at music, and also how good they are at this task. In Solus Rex, Peter plays all the instruments and also does the vocals, all by himself; if this is not a talented musician don’t know what it is.
In this debut EP, you’ll find 4 tracks of the finest Swedish Old School Death/Doom Metal, with of course painful slow tempos, riffs that seem to be made with a sleepy guitar, dragging the notes until your brain assimilates them completely; plucked notes by the bass that accentuate the heaviness of the songs; drums marking a lazy pace with repetitive and simple patterns that are very effective; and one of the most cavernous and deep voice I’ve listened to, it rumbles with fury and heaviness, it’s perfect for this music.
I like the way these songs turn into something almost hypnotic, alluring indeed, dragging the listener to a place where time goes by more slowly, where music becomes a tough and unbearable burden, where you can feel all the suffering. There’s a special beauty in this. The bass has a big role in these tracks because it’s present almost everywhere and makes you go down and down and sink together with the music. It’s vibrant and sluggish, I love it.
Lyrics contain a lot of pessimism and melancholy, from the ode to the defeaten that is “The Iron Crown” to total anguish and torment in “Razor Petals”, there’s no light shining in any of these songs. Only darkness and suffering. Tough themes indeed, but life isn’t a bed of roses after all…
There’s an extreme painful feeling in “Downward Spiral Architect”, where tempos are agonic and guitars play repetitive riffs and you feel overwhelmed just by listening to all the discomfort that’s contained in the lyrics. I love Metal when it’s about suffering, darkness, melancholy, it can be cathartic and soothing.
It’s liberating to get lost into music that makes your heart bleed while you are listening to it, and these 4 songs do this to me. 9/10 by Sílvia
Label
Official site
Bandcamp
Instagram
Facebook
9/10 Epic Storm
**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre**
#WeAreBlessedAltarZine
#TheZineSupportingTheUnderground
