Soul Embraced

Item: For the Incomplete
Author: Josh Spencer

For the Incomplete

(2001)

Reviewed by Josh Spencer

Discogs YouTube

Label Clenchedfist RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2001

death metal metal metalcore thrash metal

I've been playing Gauntlet: Dark Legacy on Playstation 2 this past week, and you know how as your character gains levels, becomes more powerful, and finds items, he/she starts looking more and more formidable? New armor, bigger weapons, a more confident swagger. That's what Soul Embraced is like. I mean, at their core they're still old school death metal, but two of the guys in the band (Living Sacrifice's drummer Lance Garvin and guitarist Rocky Gray) have been playing for quite awhile. It's the same old metal, but powered up through experience and time in the trenches. Soul Embraced stomps through your speakers with added crunch, melody, and flair. It's satisfying even for those metal fans who don't dig death metal. Lance's percussive onslaught shreds whole armies, Chad Moore's powerfully deep & guttural vocals send fear into hearts, and Rocky's bottomless bag of brutal riffs blows through any stragglers and turns them to dust.

Although people complain that not enough authentic, thrashing albums are made by Christians each year, the metal that does get released is usually excellent. Last year we got Underoath, Extol, Lengsel, and Living Sacrifice. This year hasn't been as fruitful, but Soul Embraced's For the Incomplete is the undisputed champion so far, pouring out deep vats of death metal might. This is true apocalyptic music, with lyrics like:

dominions of the damned destroyed and burned
all is crushed
annihilated
this dead world will be no more
God dominates
killing darkness.

Alrighty then. It's the voice of God's vengeance, rarely heard anymore. The other songs aren't quite so bloodthirsty, but uphold the traditionally dark yet evangelical lyrics of Christian metal of the past, ala Vengeance Rising, old Living Sacrifice, Mortification, Believer, etc. Though most of their predecessors are now fallen, Soul Embraced step up to fill the gap, bringing mighty music of war against the devil, the flesh, and the world.

4.5 tocks