- advertisement -

SOIL
Scream: The Essentials
2017 Pavement Music

Ruben Mosqueda SOIL landed on our radar in 2001 with “Halo” off their major label debut album Scars and the band generated a buzz with their ‘post grunge’ sound by way of ‘nu-metal.’ SOIL certainly had a sound that was accessible to hard rockers and metal fanatics. SOIL followed Scars with 2004’s Redefine with more critical acclaim and rode high with the tracks “Pride”, “ReDefine” and “Remember” which was dedicated to DROWNING POOL vocalist Dave Williams who [SOIL] vocalist Ryan McCombs would later replace.

SOIL pressed forward with another singer and issued two more records that didn’t exactly set the world afire. In 2001 exit new singer and enter Ryan McCombs who struggled to get out of the shadow of Williams. In 2013 SOIL featured Ryan McCombs on vocals, Tim King on bass and Adam Zadel on guitar.

This leads us to the 2017 SOIL ‘best of’ compilation titled Scream: The Essentials. Typically a ‘hits' collection is nothing more than an opportunity for a label or a band to fleece their fanbase. I don't get that feeling from Scream because of all the extra material made its way onto this record. Sure it could be due to the fact that they've excluded stuff post-McCombs; that's expected and makes for a stronger effort [I believe]. This collection is loaded with hits; “Halo”, “Breaking Me Down”, “Pride”, “ReDefine” amongst tracks that predated Scars and covers of THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP’s “Gimme Some Lovin’” and RAM JAM’s “Black Betty”, which is really thinking out of the box. “Give It Up”, featuring the late Wayne Static [STATIC-X], is another highlight as is their rendition of SOUNDGARDEN’s “Rusty Cage” that closes out this 20 track collection. In short, a great compilation to introduce the youngsters to a pretty damn good band that they might have missed out on and a great reintroduction to those of us that lost track of SOIL. The question I ask, is it too late?

4.0 Out Of 5.0

Grab your copy of Scream: The Essentials in the KNAC.COM More Store right HERE.