A review
on SoulNidus album “Into Pieces”
Nassir Mashkouri
January 2004
www.interconnect-iranian.com
"One
just can't ignore the fact that there are lots of new and upcoming Iranian
rockers out there (especially out of Iran) that are still quite influenced by
the outdated sound of bands like Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, and guitarists like
Joe Satiriani. Fortunately however, there are also
bands like Soul Nidus that live in the current times
and present a more up to date sound."
An
astonishing voice laid on some fantastic lyrics with a grunge/alternative rock
style is what you are in for when listening to "Into Pieces", the
brand new release from Soul Nidus; an
Iranian/Canadian rock band.
It was
about 2 months ago that by accident I happened to find their web site and heard
samples of their music. I was actually quite touched by their sound, especially
with a track called "In my head". So I felt that I must present them
to my partner in crime, our I-I editor, and we both
agreed that we must feature them in our Buzz-worthy section of the last issue.
I then contacted the leader of the band, Ehsan Ashrafi, and asked for a few complete samples of the songs
to meet the minimum requirements for being featured on our site. And it barely
took a week for me to get a copy of the CD, for which I am quite thankful. It
only took one listen to the very first track of the CD for me to say WOW! That
track is called "I can't take it" and in my opinion is their best
song on the Album. It starts with a series of mellow and jazzy guitar chords
and slowly it progresses into a heavier sound that is followed by Ehsan's dark and powerful voice.
The lyrics
are emotional and they cover existential subject matters. And thanks to Ehsan's expressive delivery, one can feel at ease while
establishing a deep connection with the words. I was so touched with this song that
I had to listen to it over and over for some time, and even a month later now,
I find myself listening to it every now and then. "I can't take it"
goes something like this:
>I can't take it
Takin' a walk down the street of pain/
there's no way I can run away from this rain
a long line of thoughts in my head/
my life is a movie, that old story thats fadin' from the book of your brain/
if you're leavin' then take me away from me
coz'
I can't take it/ not another day/
I can't fake it
I know someday life will break me/
into pieces.... into pieces
It is quite
obvious that Ehsan who is the primary songwriter of
the band has gone through a lot in his short song-writing career, which started
when he was only 16 years old. And from this collection of songs, one can
easily detect the brilliance behind his songwriting.
Here's
another excerpt from yet another powerful track called "In my head":
>In my head
This life feels like a million years/
what else have u got there other than those fears?
Runnin' in circles u ain't goin' any where/
review your dreams twenty million times
then analyze life to wrong and right/
I'd rather die than to fade away
get me out of here
I'm
getting out of here, help me overcome
Just let the sun shine from above
Just get 'em outta here
Outta my head
The light is the darkness' biggest fear
So shine in my head
I do have
to admit though that when it comes to the musical style of the album, they seem
to be somewhat scattered. Their biggest influence is grunge/alternative rock
and at times they show flavors of punk rock, which is
not necessarily a disadvantage for the collection. The track "I want
you", actually takes you to the early Seventies when psychedelic rock was
at its' peak with bands such as The Doors. In fact, "I want you"
could have easily been connected to the Doors' front man, the legendary Jim
Morrison.
If there is
a weak part to the package, it is the sound engineering, which at times forces
you to turn down the bass, as you simply can't ignore the poor speakers any
longer, even if it is just as a form of respect to your neighbors.
As a result I do have to point out that if Soul Nidus
really has the ambition of being successful internationally, and competing with
bands such as Audioslave, and Linkin
Park, then they must work really hard to be taken seriously as they have a long
way to go in finding their mature and original sound that can be clearly
identified in the jungle of Western music. On the other hand if I were to
consider them as just an Iranian band that is targeting Iranian listeners, then
I could easily say that there are not that many bands out there that can go
head to head with their sound right now.
On a
personal level, I wish that Ehsan, at least would try
to write some lyrics in Farsi to match his powerful vocal range mixed in
between the grunge/alternative sound of Soul Nidus.
Maybe the heavier sound than ever of Soul Nidus could
serve as a past due wake up call for a band like Sarakhs that only year ago
showed so much promise but has since gone into a winter hibernation mode.
One just
can't ignore the fact that there are lots of new and upcoming Iranian rockers
out there (especially out of Iran) that are still quite influenced by the
outdated sound of bands like Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, and guitarists like Joe Satiriani. Fortunately however, there are also bands like
Soul Nidus that live in the current times and present
a more up to date sound. Of course, as mentioned previously they still don't
have any songs with Farsi lyrics, and this may be contributed to the fact that
that some people still believe that Persian language is not suitable for
Western music especially rock. This can't be farther from the truth, as so
beautifully presented around a year ago in the originalheavy
grunge rock anthem "Mordab" by "Sarakhs"
(knock-knock…wake up call # 2). The underlying message here is that there
are still a lot of young Iranian listeners out there that are waiting to get
exposed to bands like Soul Nidus.
In closing, "In to pieces" is my favorite
grunge rock album of 2003 (featuring Iranian musicians) for the moment and is
played in my stereo just about everyday. I hope soon the Iranian fans in
And here
are my favorite tracks of the album:
1- I can't
take it
2- In my head
3- Why?
4- I want you
5- Better than me
6- Far away
7- Rock star
استفاده از
این اثر با
ذکر منبع
بلامانع است.
تمام
حقوق این سایت
متعلق به نویسنده
است