SOTO
Divak
earMusic
2016
SOTO is another excuse for JSS, or Jeff Scott Soto, who can’t seem able to, which moniker or sound style to concentrate on this late in his career to release music. Here he goes for a more modern, down tuned and melodic style that’s a little reminiscent of what Adrenaline Mob are all about, but not as aggressive and quite more melodic.
Jeff sings generally “lower” here, but his timbre remains likable and he still has a knack for devising some “catchy” vocal lines, which seems to save grace. This is however quite far removed from the old glories (Yngwie, Talisman or even the old solo albums) but that doesn’t matter since the bread winner these days for JSS seems to be the T$O shows, which have destroyed a lot of nice acts artists by having them sing carols + a couple of bastardized versions of their ballads that the general public would not touch otherwise, in return for some pretty good money. Why do a Savatage album, when it will make 1/100 of TSO. True. Why play second fiddle to others, when you used to headline? Oh well, rhetoric questions. But the cash register rings.
“Divak” (pronounced dee-vock) (WTF is that?) feels like more of the same as (“Inside the Vertigo”), but even more watered down and generic.
“Divak (Intro)” is a quite nice – semi symphonic intro to “Weight of the World”, a catchy intro that’s very rhythmical and modern/edgy, but manages to have a quite melodic chorus that keeps it from crumbling under its own “weight”…
“FreakShow” is the “single” and it’s based on a very generic, but punchy riff that drives this syncopated heavy tune, like a locomotive. Not bad, but I wonder who’s the “freak” in this “freakshow”. Funnily enough the whole lyric seems to be more of a reflection than really an attack. Still it’s a decent enough tune.
“Paranoia” is more of the same, with a different riff and the same predictable “dynamics”, cute chorus, but it seems like there’s a formula at work here, producing cookie cutter tunes. And what the point of those “buried” guitar leads, if they’re gonna be hardly audible?!
“Unblame” feels like a rockier Nickelback, but if they were done “right”… and by a more capable singer… oh and here actually the solo doesn’t have to antagonize one million other things, or be buried.
“Cyber Masquerade” seems to poke a bit of fun to the whole “hollywood-celeb-online-virallity” situation, but it’s steam of consciousness rap and easy “rhymes” don’t really take it too far, although the guitars here after a while seem to be taking over… of well, if only the tone was a bit brighter though and not so subdued….
If there’s one thing that JSS does well, still, that’s “ballads” and here, he pulls off one… easily – I dunno if he even believes into half of what he sings, because it sounds quite generic and cookie-cutter lyrically, but damn me, if he doesn’t perform it seminally… “In My Darkest Hour” is certainly not the best ballad JSS has done, but it’s one of the better moments of this album, complete with a couple of Queen like “moments” here and there… not too shabby.
“Forgotten” initially feels like bad nu-metal, only to go completely melodic for the chorus, only for its f-ugly riff to come back. Even if this was led by bass without any guitars, I doubt if the difference would be “that” noticeable, but for the solo. Some might actually like this style and Jeff, whose vocals sound quite shot, in general might find it easier to sing, but…
“SuckerPunch” tries to revitalize things a bit and it seems to be infused with some energy, but it’s chorus despite its melody ain’t all that great… of course, JSS is still able to make a “sale” but…
Drowned in it’s down-tuned waters “Time” is actually not all that bad, until Jeff concludes an extended bridge-come-chorus, rather unspectacular…
While “Misfired” has these promising melodies at its beginning and Soto even sounds promising at the beginning with a softer style that’s more reminiscent of his past, the pre-chorus with its funky bass seems to be a bit of a “misfire” (pun intended), but surprisingly the chorus is pretty good. All it all not too shabby, not at all in fact.
“The Fall From Grace” (before or after) seems to follow most of the album’s tracks in the dichotomy between modern riffing and “softer” chorus, bridges, etc… it’s neither good or bad, but adds in the general mediocrity.
“Awakened”, bizarrely, tries the same formula, but with an extra layer of quite epic sounding keys in places… it’s an interesting experiment that somewhat “works” and those piano notes are an interesting invention… cool.
All digital versions have the “benefit” of 5 bonus tracks – all of them “live” that I just don’t have to comment on, namely “Final Say”, “The Fall”, “Break”, “When I‘m Older” and “Stand Up” (meh)…
with the “iTunes/Apple music” also receiving an additional two in the form of “My Life” and “Cracking the Stone”, which I can’t also comment upon.
These “SOTO” albums are say, not as messed up as “beautiful mess” was, but they seem to be quite confused and transitional… into an uncertain “new era” for JSS… only the future will show what that’s gonna be like…
Jeff sings generally “lower” here, but his timbre remains likable and he still has a knack for devising some “catchy” vocal lines, which seems to save grace. This is however quite far removed from the old glories (Yngwie, Talisman or even the old solo albums) but that doesn’t matter since the bread winner these days for JSS seems to be the T$O shows, which have destroyed a lot of nice acts artists by having them sing carols + a couple of bastardized versions of their ballads that the general public would not touch otherwise, in return for some pretty good money. Why do a Savatage album, when it will make 1/100 of TSO. True. Why play second fiddle to others, when you used to headline? Oh well, rhetoric questions. But the cash register rings.
“Divak” (pronounced dee-vock) (WTF is that?) feels like more of the same as (“Inside the Vertigo”), but even more watered down and generic.
“Divak (Intro)” is a quite nice – semi symphonic intro to “Weight of the World”, a catchy intro that’s very rhythmical and modern/edgy, but manages to have a quite melodic chorus that keeps it from crumbling under its own “weight”…
“FreakShow” is the “single” and it’s based on a very generic, but punchy riff that drives this syncopated heavy tune, like a locomotive. Not bad, but I wonder who’s the “freak” in this “freakshow”. Funnily enough the whole lyric seems to be more of a reflection than really an attack. Still it’s a decent enough tune.
“Paranoia” is more of the same, with a different riff and the same predictable “dynamics”, cute chorus, but it seems like there’s a formula at work here, producing cookie cutter tunes. And what the point of those “buried” guitar leads, if they’re gonna be hardly audible?!
“Unblame” feels like a rockier Nickelback, but if they were done “right”… and by a more capable singer… oh and here actually the solo doesn’t have to antagonize one million other things, or be buried.
“Cyber Masquerade” seems to poke a bit of fun to the whole “hollywood-celeb-online-virallity” situation, but it’s steam of consciousness rap and easy “rhymes” don’t really take it too far, although the guitars here after a while seem to be taking over… of well, if only the tone was a bit brighter though and not so subdued….
If there’s one thing that JSS does well, still, that’s “ballads” and here, he pulls off one… easily – I dunno if he even believes into half of what he sings, because it sounds quite generic and cookie-cutter lyrically, but damn me, if he doesn’t perform it seminally… “In My Darkest Hour” is certainly not the best ballad JSS has done, but it’s one of the better moments of this album, complete with a couple of Queen like “moments” here and there… not too shabby.
“Forgotten” initially feels like bad nu-metal, only to go completely melodic for the chorus, only for its f-ugly riff to come back. Even if this was led by bass without any guitars, I doubt if the difference would be “that” noticeable, but for the solo. Some might actually like this style and Jeff, whose vocals sound quite shot, in general might find it easier to sing, but…
“SuckerPunch” tries to revitalize things a bit and it seems to be infused with some energy, but it’s chorus despite its melody ain’t all that great… of course, JSS is still able to make a “sale” but…
Drowned in it’s down-tuned waters “Time” is actually not all that bad, until Jeff concludes an extended bridge-come-chorus, rather unspectacular…
While “Misfired” has these promising melodies at its beginning and Soto even sounds promising at the beginning with a softer style that’s more reminiscent of his past, the pre-chorus with its funky bass seems to be a bit of a “misfire” (pun intended), but surprisingly the chorus is pretty good. All it all not too shabby, not at all in fact.
“The Fall From Grace” (before or after) seems to follow most of the album’s tracks in the dichotomy between modern riffing and “softer” chorus, bridges, etc… it’s neither good or bad, but adds in the general mediocrity.
“Awakened”, bizarrely, tries the same formula, but with an extra layer of quite epic sounding keys in places… it’s an interesting experiment that somewhat “works” and those piano notes are an interesting invention… cool.
All digital versions have the “benefit” of 5 bonus tracks – all of them “live” that I just don’t have to comment on, namely “Final Say”, “The Fall”, “Break”, “When I‘m Older” and “Stand Up” (meh)…
with the “iTunes/Apple music” also receiving an additional two in the form of “My Life” and “Cracking the Stone”, which I can’t also comment upon.
These “SOTO” albums are say, not as messed up as “beautiful mess” was, but they seem to be quite confused and transitional… into an uncertain “new era” for JSS… only the future will show what that’s gonna be like…