Album Review: Solus Rex – Scenes from Yonder Life
Band: Solus Rex
Title: Scenes from Yonder Life
Label: Obelisk Polaris Productions
Release date: December 12th, 2025
Country: Sweden
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording
Album Review: Solus Rex – Scenes from Yonder Life via Obelisk Polaris Productions by Sílvia
After 15 months of releasing their debut EP, Solus Rex strikes again with this new one, “Scenes from Yonder Life”, where Peter Svensson (the only person in this band) unleashes again his creativity in the form of slow tempos, hypnotic riffs and his deep and cavernous voice. Delving into dark and highly emotional themes through the lyrics, these 4 tracks have been haunting me and carrying me to some obscure places in my own mind… which is a good thing indeed.
This EP contains 4 songs of the finest Death/Doom Metal, Old School style, and the music sets an atmosphere of gloominess all around that no one can escape. Drums mark slow tempos playing repetitive patterns that crawl painfully through your ears. Guitars and bass entwine in obsessive riffs and lows, deeply resonating, carving a universe of pain and suffering.
Vocals are impressive due to the feeling they convey: an unbearable sorrow, a hurting pain in the deepest part of the heart. It feels cathartic, though; Peter drags you to the darkest hole and squeezes your soul to the limit, and in some way it feels liberating.
The lyrics in “Scenes from Yonder Life“ are profound, talking about inner struggles, solitude, twisted thoughts… and if you delve into them, you’ll feel that pain, the unbearable burden of the human being. As if life is a tortuous path of lies, dissatisfaction, agony; an eternal pain consuming our minds mercilessly. And yet, we exist, we live, we go through all this, carrying all the weight of this suffering. It’s devastating.
I really love the way everything fits together: the somber tone of riffs and guitar harmonies, plus the bass playing deep and resonant lows, that’s a great use of the strings. Drums with a rough and crushing sound, they bring a real old-school reminiscence. Vocals are tormented and they slowly unravel these stories from the past life, like a mantra. The synths used in the intro of the closing track, “Revelation of the Unspeakable”, mark a ghostly atmosphere; this song talks about the unbearable burden of disappointment that humans wear on their shoulders. The ambiance is sinister and the music is like an agonic, endless parade.
I really love burying myself in music that speaks to me and touches me with the lyrics; this is not “only music”, this is pure emotion. 9/10
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9/10 Epic Storm
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