Album Review: "A Formless Dawn" by A Soul Called Perdition

A Formless Dawn

In the music world there are no shortage of solo artists. What always gives me pause is when I think about someone who was in a famous band that sold arenas and then decides to break out on his own.

Peter Criss is a prime example, and easy target, to demonstrate what it means to leave a platinum selling band without the name.

Criss went on to a dismal solo career. In the 27 total years outside of Kiss, he has released 4 albums and only one of them is remotely worth listening to.

It's not the quantity or the quality really of these albums though. In those 27 years Criss has only embarked on two concert tours, and they were back to back on the heels of his best solo effort, Cat #1.

As detailed in his autobiography, he would be disappointed when only 250 people would attend. Mind you, he never played any Kiss songs and didn't perform soundchecks. Criss simply thought people would show up and buy millions of albums because of him.

Tuomas aka A Soul Called Perdition

As you might expect, this is a solo album, but it's unlike 99% of the solo albums you have heard.

Not just because it's glorious death metal, well that is part of it, but because this is a genuine solo record.

When Tuomas's band, Pain Confessor, began heading towards the light at the end of the tunnel, he had already penned a full album of some blazing Finnish death  metal.

So, when that band imploded, he began recording this album.

Completely by himself. The vocals, the guitars, the bass, and yes even the drums, are all played by a single man. He went Foo Figthers style on this one.

What makes this astounding is that Tuomas is now in a class with Alex Skolnick, because Tuomas played dueling solos with himself like Skolnick did the last time I saw him play.

The guitars are top notch, naturally, this death metal after all. The solos are more than just flash and bangs though. They are deeply emotional. Not as frequent as I'd prefer, but that's not much of a complaint.

The rhythm guitars are sharp katanas that slice through everything. Vocally...immense pain and suffering is pouring out.

Top to bottom, this album delivers, When you consider one person did everything from writing, performing, and drawing the artwork, this album becomes even more impressive.

Release: 3/11/16
Genre: Death Metal
Label: DIY
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