Soul Embraced
Little Rock, Arkansas9 reviews across 3 releases
Soul Embraced is a Christian death metal band from Little Rock, Arkansas, formed in 1997 as a side project connected to the local band Shredded Corpse. The first version ended after one song, but the project returned in 1999 with members of Living Sacrifice and vocalist Chad Moore. By the 2001 debut For the Incomplete, it had a compact, forceful sound built around deep growls and technical guitar work, with drumming that moved between midtempo weight and sudden faster passages. The songs also carried black-metal traces, old-school death-metal phrasing, and apocalyptic Christian lyrics. Guitar solos were unusually prominent. This Is My Blood kept the death-metal base while making more room for melody and clean vocals, though it used less speed. On 2003's Immune, metalcore influence had replaced much of the earlier velocity, leaving mostly slower or midtempo songs with death-metal vocals and a more familiar modern-metal shape.
In 2008, Rocky Gray stopped playing guitar for Soul Embraced while Lance Garvin also stepped away to concentrate on Living Sacrifice. Gray then handled drums as Chad Moore remained, with Devin Castle and Jeff Bowie in the lineup. The band's Solid State period ended soon afterward, and it moved to Rottweiler Records for Mythos, released in 2013. Garvin rejoined in 2014, with Cody Smith and Jon Dunn added to the lineup. Gray's other work included Evanescence, whose Fallen featured a version of Soul Embraced's "My Tourniquet." By 2017, Jeff Bowie had returned and Soul Embraced was announcing another album and tour.
3 releases reviewed
For the Incomplete
This Is My Blood
