Review of the Album "Solstice" by American Thrash Metal Band Solstice

This Miami Florida based band called Solstice that is considered a hybrid of death metal and thrash metal first got my attention with their 1995 studio album called Pray. Their debut album which is called Solstice as well features guitarist Rob Barret who also performs the vocals on this album. From the start of this very heavy album, the first song called Transmogified there is a definite influence of Testament. There are influences of earlier thrash metal bands as well as a major touch of that Florida death metal riffing plus hardcore drumming and riffing that reminds me of Napalm Death. Welcome to the music of Solstice!

The song refers to what happens when what was solid is now starting to break down. This is typical of the human body when the body suffers self-inflicted wounds and it just breaks down eventually. To avoid confusion, I am referring to the song Transmogrified. However, Solstice is not as good of a band as other bands from this area such as Cynic or the band Death. Speaking of that awesome Florida band, the riffing of the song called Cleansed of Impurity has a section that sounds like them. This song is about how the corporate media and corporate power will do anything to keep their populations ignorant and subservient to their interests. There is a distinct guitar riffing style that is present in the 1991 album Human. And guess who plays guitar on that album? It is Chuck Schuldiner of course who really got that early start in the Florida death metal scene around 1983. Fast forward to 1992 and bands like Solstice adopted that kind of riffing structure. Eternal Waking has a feel of Testament during the Souls of Black era.

Once again though, Solstice has a similar issue that bands such as Deicide, Obituary, and Sadus have and this is negative, morbid lyrical content. Yes, Solstice is a thrash metal band but lyrics about phantasmagoria, recurring nightmares and other sadistic topics won’t win over some fans. The other thing that is important to mention that while the riffing is good and the songs are good as well, what was the band Solstice trying to accomplish by writing songs about the possible end of the world and the rage that occurs in so many people as they get driven over the edge? The United States already has too many social problems to mention here and the kind of lyrics that we see on this album can be enough to drive some fans away.

Survival Reaction is a song about what happens when we have too much anger in our bodies and it can lead to chaos, social disorder and other major social problems. Plasticized has a little influence of the US band Cannibal Corpse in the beginning as the song talks about what happens when age takes its toll on the body. All of us are living on what is called borrowed time. We only have a certain number of years on this planet but that’s obvious to anyone who gets old enough to understand the concept. Overall, Solstice, the debut album of this band’s name is a good, decent thrash metal work but it also cannot even be as good as Slayer and certainly nowhere near as good as German thrash metal bands.

These statements are not meant to put down Solstice as a band but they have to clean up their lyrical content a bit and make their lyrics more diverse and actually address topics that really matter to the world.

Final score for the album Solstice: 78 out of 100 points