Sol is a perfect stranger to my ears. It is the solo project of Danish composer Emil Brake, who single-handedly plays all the instruments as varied as guitars, bass, drums, accordion, banjo, clarinet, vocals and samplings. A certain Martin Jacobsen did additional guitars on "The Insanity of Man".
By looking at the small booklet, I was not sure as to what to expect from Sol. The bearded character (Emil) on the cover, medieval characters drawn inside and a skeleton on the back cover, seemed a bit mystical. Listening to the music, one can still feel a mystical aura floating in the air, giving a very haunted ambiance very well transmitted by Emil's deep raspy vocals. The voice from beyond! Slow-paced compositions akin to Funeral Doom, although perhaps a tad bit too fat for the genre. Excellent crushing guitar work can be heard on just about all the tracks, to my greatest pleasure, matching very well the deeply tenebrous vocal range of Emil. The unorthodox choice of instruments is what makes Sol different from other Doom/Black Metal acts. The closing track "Apocalypse" has the most unusual selection woven into its structure. Indeed, the slow funeral walk has no distorted or heavy guitars like the other songs, but instead some sort of thud beating the slow pace on which walks sadly melodic tones on banjo, accordion and clarinet.
Although not an easy listen, Let There Be a Massacre has many great crushing numbers to doom you such as: "Centuries of Human Filth", "Boginki", "Era of Decadence" and "The Insanity of Man".
