Can Of Soul: Hearreality

I've been on the verge of believing Can Of Soul might be on to something big with their debut album Hearreality a few times now, yet across the eleven tracks and a bonus cut, this album is simply too inconsistent to do anything other than frustrate. In essence CoS is a one man show, "Tomrocker" being the idea maker here. Hearreality finds him aided by a revolving cast of guitarists, bassists, sax players and cellists. It also finds a "concept" of a dying world, a joining of alien nations and a bloody battle to survive. It's a neat, if hardly original story and it's delivered well. However to make that lyrical journey worthwhile, the Doom meets Glam, via Metal, Rockabilly and melancholy needs to also hit the mark – the strike rate is, in truth, fifty-fifty.

Tomrocker can sing, he can scream and he can croon. All effectively, all believably, with a drone of Peter Steele (Type O Negative) and lip curl of Glenn Danzig working well alongside a vintage hit of the serious tones of 80s sensation Black. Take the string infused "My Queen" as an exhibit of what this album is capable of; atmosphere, foreboding, hope and loss, or "We Hate The Sun", where a rush of riffs, burst of bass and vicious verve of vocals lock a demented groove into place; the standard suddenly reach for the stars high. However match that against the meanderingly aimless "Demon Eater", where a cloying guitar line cavorts like a drunk in full on, get him out of here mode, or the pointless, and simply annoying cover of "Bette Davis Eyes", where a rather wonderful song is slowly and needlessly destroyed and Hearreality becomes and album of extremes. For every sit up and take notice slam of guitars and snarl of vocals, there's an aimless riff and whining six string solo sucking the momentum out of what otherwise could be a thoroughly convincing ride.

In this day and age of playlists and shuffle, there are a collection of tracks here that come strongly recommended, whilst a selection should undoubtedly be filed in the skip pile. As an album Heareality delights the mind and dashes the hopes in equal measure, proving there's a huge amount of talent in this Can Of Soul. However what appears lacking is focus and an ability to filter the nuggets of gold from the handfuls of dirt.

Track Listing
1. We Hate the Sun
2. This Order #5
3. Mystic
4. Solid Conviction
5. My Queen
6. Bette Davis Eyes
7. Demon Eater
8. Peaceful Snake
9. Dealing
10. Beyond My Wayward Zen Garden
11. Outro
12. DGRZ (bonus track)

Added: February 8th 2015
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Can Of Soul on Facebook
Hits: 1775
Language: english

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