A solid start but is it enough?
Arbroath is quite a small town in Scotland. It's very cold and wet; not exactly a hot bed of musical talent, death metal or otherwise. However, it is unsurprising that Soundshok have gone down the doom and gloom path of death metal. The bleakness of their surroundings has certainly rubbed off on this band.
You are introduced to some pretty doom heavy riffs and powerful bass right from the get-go. The vocals are incredibly low but not exactly guttural like many death metal bands. There's a wholesomeness about them though the range is somewhat limited. Rather than being too stretched or moving into shouting territory, they remain firmly in a bear like growl.
In fact, the vocals are not the only thing that doesn't change; the band simply doesn't have much in the way of dynamics. Take the drum beat for instance. It's a little bit of occasional cymbal smashing and repeated double bass pedal action. Sure, its the staples of the genre but it's just that. Can't say that it makes any real impact. We could do with a little more variety here and there I think.
Four tracks in and I think I'm still listening to the same song. I think this band have managed to find the core elements of death metal, but that's pretty much what they've stuck to. It needs a little flair here and there. They claim their influences include Sepultura, Slayer and Lamb of God. Sadly, they don't have the oddness of Sepultura, the out-and-out catchy-ness of Slayer but they have managed to capture Lamb of God's extreme styles.
It's not all bad though, by any means. A couple of the tracks deviate slightly with some alternative drum sounds and a couple of more complicated riffs thrown in but still, it doesn't seem like enough. Bless them though, for they are only just beginning and although I wouldn't go out and buy this album, I would say that for a small local band, the production is good, the sound is wholesome and nowhere near as poor as other bands of the same ilk.
I would suspect that this band need to work on a more original sound and bring in some more flavor to the proceedings. A promising start and if you like Death Metal and Scottish Whiskey, maybe you'll be like this band!