SOTO - Inside The Vertigo

[AlphaMale]

so anybody heard this ?

 

my first impression of this album is not good. Awfully average at around 63% because Soto played down the modern metal road with downtuned guitar setting which I'm really allergic to. The only worthy track in an iPod is the decent power ballad, 'When I'm Older', and you know you're in trouble if you have lots of throw-away materials. Folks that into modern stuffs like Disturbed, Hatebreed, etc might dig this though

 

Not sure what happened with him and why he decided not to repeat the good 'Damage Control' melodic style. His vocal still sounds good but the songs mostly don't, so probably the first disappointment of 2015 and could be the top 5 of this year ? Too bad

 

This! Very disappointing.

 

I gave it a 64%. Not very good at all.

[Glen]

You 2 are bonkers.

 

2nd spin this afternoon. Killer album.

[Nightrain]

we got 3 better metal albums so far than this, ANGRA, LEVEL 10, and BATTLE BEAST, and all those 3 are below 80%

[JC_AOR]

 

Its not as good as Wrath but I do like it....listening to it once will do nothing, but then I always say this. Some songs are growers.

Loads of people hated Beautiful Mess too but man I loved that album.

For me its good to hear him do something different again - damage control went back to basics to satisfy the regular fans.

I loved Beautiful Mess as well

Yep Beautifull Mess was excellent. I still think 'Our Song' is up there as one of his best songs in the JSS catalogue.

[Geoff]

I've had this lined up to go for about 5 days now and still haven't worked up the enthusiasm to bother. That's where I'm at with it, but I will listen soon and express my thoughts.

[Glen]

 

 

Its not as good as Wrath but I do like it....listening to it once will do nothing, but then I always say this. Some songs are growers.

Loads of people hated Beautiful Mess too but man I loved that album.

For me its good to hear him do something different again - damage control went back to basics to satisfy the regular fans.

I loved Beautiful Mess as well

Yep Beautifull Mess was excellent. I still think 'Our Song' is up there as one of his best songs in the JSS catalogue.

 

 

Agreed.

 

I like the fact that he has mixed it up in his career too from hard hitting Talisman to his melodic solo stuff, the modernish Beautiful Mess, TSO, Queen tributes, his time in Journey, WET and now some kick arse metal.

 

You can hardly call him a one trick pony.

 

Killer front man too.

 

Amazing artist.

[Geoff]

Wow mate we at polar opposites I have to say.

 

This is a killer metal album from start to finish - soto sounds great, it retains enough melody throughout while kicking your butt to Kingdom Come. I love it.

 

Yeah im sure every dude on here is gonna pour over 'when im older' as its standard JSS type anthem....but theres so much more here for me.

 

I doubt there will be a better metal album this year....Tremonti has got his work cut out now.

 

Also I have to say the production is 100% kick your arse....those drums and bass wow.

 

Jeez mate, as I heard this this afternoon I kept asking myself - would you have comments anything like this if Soto was not involved? You're evidently a massive Soto fan and that's cool. I totally get being a little more lenient for your favourite artists... but for me -

 

This is just very, very dreary metal. Only two significant hooks ('When I'm older' and 'Fall to pieces') and the rest I just found samey, and uninteresting. If it wasn't Soto I probably wouldn't have made it past about track 4, but I stuck with it because I thought I should. I'll listen to it once more to get a rating for it for my records, copy 'When I'm older' and 'Fall to pieces' to a file of keepers, and probably never hear the rest of the album in my entire life.

 

Very average metal that thousands of bands do equally bland every day of the week.

[Glen]

You dont like metal in any case, even classic metal albums, so why even bother?

 

Its got nothing to do with it being Soto. Yes I like him as an artist, but if he produced a poor album I would say so - not every Talisman album was excellent imo and the Humanimal album was pretty average as well. Soul SirkUS as well was hit and miss, although with enough good tracks to be a keeper.

 

I know you guys are all for melody melody melody and that's fine. But I also like a slab of kick my arse metal as well......hence my love for NWOBHM.

 

I think he's produced a very varied album here with something for everyone........there are melodic tracks here. Surprised no ones mentioned Jealousy?? That's a killer track imo. Also 'Break' has a great hook - It's been in my head all day. Love 'Final Say' as well - great hard hitting track with cool lyrics.

 

Repeated spins has revealed a couple of weaker moments like Karma's Kiss and im not really a fan of the longer track (although it has its moments), the title track as well is only OK.....so I don't expect to be scoring this in the 90s, but lower 80s seems perfectly reasonable at the moment.

 

Of course there will be better albums this year......Eclipse and Revolution Saints for a start. But I like what Soto has done here and it's something a bit different from him which is also cool.

 

One things for sure there are no f inspiro rockers on here......or fluffy pukey syrupy ballads ;-)

[Glen]

And also, when you say 'copy', I assume you mean 'steal'.......or are you intending to purchase the download for those 2 tracks ;-)

[Geoff]

Haha, love how people come up with the "you hate metal" thing. Fair enough. Without getting into an annoying discussion, just looking at only my top 10 of 2014 list alone reveals the States Of Panic album; which is far heavier than this one.

 

What is it I am supposed to not like about metal? Is it too heavy for me? I don't get it. I admit I am not a fan of most 80's heavy metal bands, but that is because of lyrics I don't connect with on any level, and songs that leave me cold, devoid of hooks. Since metal started incorporating said hooks in recent years, I have been on board with many modern metal bands. So yeah, I don't really like many 80's heavy metal bands, but I like plenty of recent ones. I just like hooks with my music.

 

The reasons I like this disc have NOTHING to do with it being "metal." If you stripped back all those songs to acoustic, or made them "less heavy," they still wouldn't have good hooks or riffs. They'd still be very average and quite bland. That's all Im saying. I can listen to Backstreet Boys and Killswitch Engage back to back and the "heaviness" does not matter one iota - it's all about the actual quality of the song writing. And the quality of the song writing on this CD is very poor, imo, of course.

 

Anyway, 'Break' was probably about 3rd in my favourites, and if I'm being honest, I though the 8min song was one of the best on the album. Annoyingly long and I wouldn't listen again, but I thought it was pretty decent, despite hating long songs.

 

Yeah, you can paint it whatever way you want. I honestly find this to be very run-of-the-mill metal and I doubt many will disagree, but to each their own. Like Nightrain said, even that Level 10 disc has better tunes, imo. Basic and straight forward as hell, but at least some solid meliorable tunes.

[Glen]

I have nothing more to add. People know my thoughts and I urge anyone whos not heard it to give it a go.

 

Ill prob post a review in a few months time once ive fully disgested the album.

[The Rocker]

 

Wow mate we at polar opposites I have to say.

 

This is a killer metal album from start to finish - soto sounds great, it retains enough melody throughout while kicking your butt to Kingdom Come. I love it.

 

Yeah im sure every dude on here is gonna pour over 'when im older' as its standard JSS type anthem....but theres so much more here for me.

 

I doubt there will be a better metal album this year....Tremonti has got his work cut out now.

 

Also I have to say the production is 100% kick your arse....those drums and bass wow.

 

Jeez mate, as I heard this this afternoon I kept asking myself - would you have comments anything like this if Soto was not involved? You're evidently a massive Soto fan and that's cool. I totally get being a little more lenient for your favourite artists... but for me -

 

This is just very, very dreary metal. Only two significant hooks ('When I'm older' and 'Fall to pieces') and the rest I just found samey, and uninteresting. If it wasn't Soto I probably wouldn't have made it past about track 4, but I stuck with it because I thought I should. I'll listen to it once more to get a rating for it for my records, copy 'When I'm older' and 'Fall to pieces' to a file of keepers, and probably never hear the rest of the album in my entire life.

 

Very average metal that thousands of bands do equally bland every day of the week.

 

Agree Geoff. I am a JSS fan, but this is not for me, sorry. New W.E.T. album please!!!

[Glen]

Haha, love how people come up with the "you hate metal" thing. Fair enough. Without getting into an annoying discussion, just looking at only my top 10 of 2014 list alone reveals the States Of Panic album; which is far heavier than this one.

 

What is it I am supposed to not like about metal? Is it too heavy for me? I don't get it. I admit I am not a fan of most 80's heavy metal bands, but that is because of lyrics I don't connect with on any level, and songs that leave me cold, devoid of hooks. Since metal started incorporating said hooks in recent years, I have been on board with many modern metal bands. So yeah, I don't really like many 80's heavy metal bands, but I like plenty of recent ones. I just like hooks with my music.

 

The reasons I like this disc have NOTHING to do with it being "metal." If you stripped back all those songs to acoustic, or made them "less heavy," they still wouldn't have good hooks or riffs. They'd still be very average and quite bland. That's all Im saying. I can listen to Backstreet Boys and Killswitch Engage back to back and the "heaviness" does not matter one iota - it's all about the actual quality of the song writing. And the quality of the song writing on this CD is very poor, imo, of course.

 

Anyway, 'Break' was probably about 3rd in my favourites, and if I'm being honest, I though the 8min song was one of the best on the album. Annoyingly long and I wouldn't listen again, but I thought it was pretty decent, despite hating long songs.

 

Yeah, you can paint it whatever way you want. I honestly find this to be very run-of-the-mill metal and I doubt many will disagree, but to each their own. Like Nightrain said, even that Level 10 disc has better tunes, imo. Basic and straight forward as hell, but at least some solid meliorable tunes.

 

Sorry, just re-visiting one comment here from Nightrain and Geoff.

 

What memorable tunes were you talking about on Level 10 exactly?

 

Wow guys, if you seriously prefer that album over the new Soto, I am starting to question the validity of some recommendations on this site.

 

Aside from the lead track (which is a pretty decent tune) that Level 10 was very basic, one dimensional metal with lets face it awful lyrics

 

As for Angra.....Ive never listened to them, but checked it out on Spotify....ye Gods power metal of the worst variety....massive pass from me on that one. Just a load of galloping clap trap.

 

Just my 2 cents.........

[Geoff]

 

Haha, love how people come up with the "you hate metal" thing. Fair enough. Without getting into an annoying discussion, just looking at only my top 10 of 2014 list alone reveals the States Of Panic album; which is far heavier than this one.

 

What is it I am supposed to not like about metal? Is it too heavy for me? I don't get it. I admit I am not a fan of most 80's heavy metal bands, but that is because of lyrics I don't connect with on any level, and songs that leave me cold, devoid of hooks. Since metal started incorporating said hooks in recent years, I have been on board with many modern metal bands. So yeah, I don't really like many 80's heavy metal bands, but I like plenty of recent ones. I just like hooks with my music.

 

The reasons I like this disc have NOTHING to do with it being "metal." If you stripped back all those songs to acoustic, or made them "less heavy," they still wouldn't have good hooks or riffs. They'd still be very average and quite bland. That's all Im saying. I can listen to Backstreet Boys and Killswitch Engage back to back and the "heaviness" does not matter one iota - it's all about the actual quality of the song writing. And the quality of the song writing on this CD is very poor, imo, of course.

 

Anyway, 'Break' was probably about 3rd in my favourites, and if I'm being honest, I though the 8min song was one of the best on the album. Annoyingly long and I wouldn't listen again, but I thought it was pretty decent, despite hating long songs.

 

Yeah, you can paint it whatever way you want. I honestly find this to be very run-of-the-mill metal and I doubt many will disagree, but to each their own. Like Nightrain said, even that Level 10 disc has better tunes, imo. Basic and straight forward as hell, but at least some solid meliorable tunes.

 

Sorry, just re-visiting one comment here from Nightrain and Geoff.

 

What memorable tunes were you talking about on Level 10 exactly?

 

Wow guys, if you seriously prefer that album over the new Soto, I am starting to question the validity of some recommendations on this site.

 

Aside from the lead track (which is a pretty decent tune) that Level 10 was very basic, one dimensional metal with lets face it awful lyrics

 

As for Angra.....Ive never listened to them, but checked it out on Spotify....ye Gods power metal of the worst variety....massive pass from me on that one. Just a load of galloping clap trap.

 

Just my 2 cents.........

 

 

1. Jeez I hate the auto spell check/correction feature on this Apple thing. What a stupid computer.

 

2. Honestly mate, getting into this discussion is like asking my why I rated my 199th album of 2014 higher than the album I rated 200th... because if I listen to as many albums in 2015 as I did in 2014, I guarantee that neither of these albums will make my top 200. I have already forgotten both of them.

 

I said exactly the same thing, that the Level 10 is "basic and straight forward as hell," to be exact. And it is. But it was still pretty catchy in places with some decent, if not 100% predictable chorus hooks and melodies. The thing is, the Soto release is every bit as basic and predictable, musically. But there's only about 2-3 okay hooks on it. Yes, the production is far better, but I don't know what you're hearing in the lyrics on the Soto disc to make you think it's okay. Just that same old boring metal drone to me. No, the Level 10 disc is not great - not by a long stretch. I'm just simply saying it is better than another not-great-by-a-long-stretch disc.

 

End of the day, they're both just insignificant albums that I can assure you 99% of the listening public will have forgotten about in December 2015.

[AlphaMale]

After the first 3 or 4 poor tracks in a row, I found it very hard to get through the rest of the CD. Nothing memorable for me at all.

[Glen]

Like I said, I used to come here for recommendations, but now I'm worried.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Like I said, I used to come here for recommendations, but now I'm worried.

 

Took you a while to get there, but at least you made it! There are only a few folks whose taste I can trust, but even they have their respective genres of expertise.

 

Also, I realize I'm likely one of those that worries you. ;}

[DaHun72]

I love jss' voice, love eyes, wet, his gig on tso, and that double live Queen cd. Even really like skrapp mettle and that disco cd but besides the track mysterious I didn't like talisman and can't stand his solo cds. For me he has too many varied influences which come out in his songwriting and as a result I enjoy him singing songs penned by others.

[DaHun72]

Oh and how can you Not like angra! Awesome band!

[Geoff]

Like I said, I used to come here for recommendations, but now I'm worried.

 

The irony in that statement is that everyone else is still the same in their taste - it's just you on this one, mate. I was going to say that you'd usually tear strips off a CD like this, but honestly, usually I would not even expect you to listen to or comment on a disc of this quality. You might need to revisit average modern hard rock / metal bands like Breaking Benjamin or Trapt or stuff like that if you really love this that much, because that is where this CD's at, imo.

 

But yeah, bit rich to blame everyone else for their bad taste. No one's opinion on this has surprised me, except yours.

[Glen]

Another weird statement if you would compare this to Trapt lol. Youre serious aren't u.

 

I just dont get the hate.

 

Something like Karmas Kiss is maybe like Trapt but that is the worst song....most of the rest is miles better.

 

I was surprised in the cd booklet as well - hes used a ton of guitarists on this - it shows too - pretty varied throughout in terms of style etc.

[Geoff]

Note for note it's not like Trapt, but that's the style I'd lump this CD with. The blander side of modern hard rock / metal, kind of on the outskirts of that "nu-metal" sound. Just not the type of thing I dig. Maybe once I had a soft spot for it, but that spot hardened a long time ago.

[JC_AOR]

Only started playing this CD today so maybe too early to form an opinion but I certainly don't hate it. It's heavy but nothing I wouldn't expect from JSS. Track 4 'Break' is an early favourite.

[Nightrain]

The problem with the new SOTO in this forum is he obviously chose to play modern metal riffs style while majority of us here prefer the 80s regular riffs including me. That's why if you post DISTURBED or HATEBREED songs, I doubt if many of us will say it's great, which is very close to the new SOTO style.

 

Not a big deal if you dig this kind of modern metal Glen but you really need to question yourself, are you really defending this album because of the music or merely just because he's Jeff Scott Soto ? if say, a vocalist that you don't really like, for example ANGELS OR KINGS singer, will you still really like it ?

 

And I wonder what happened to the inconsistency of your taste? You said that you love to listen to the classic softer AOR stuffs because of your age but then you dig this modern metal which is suitable for younger audience and don't like classic heavy metal style? Also, you don't really dig CRAZY LIXX because you hate the sleazy lyrics but then you love STEEL PANTHER

 

oh and 2.5 stars on the Rockreport site (http://rockreport.be/review.asp?id=4311) for this nu-metal album speaks for our opinion too

[Glen]

OK, this is gonna be my last post on this album until I lay down a score, cos its been done to death now and it's time to move on......basically we like what we like eh??!

 

But just to follow on from NT's comments above

 

1. Anything with that dude from AorK's singing would sound rough ;-) I won't lie, I do like JSS as an artist and I am a fan of his voice, but aside from a song or 2 these songs stand up for themselves. I think I compared this to Tremonti earlier, but I could easily hear him singing these songs and it would still be great.

 

2. Yeah I guess that this album could be described as modernish metal - but surely it's so much more than that?? The quality of musicians here just gives this an extra dimension - you compare it to Disturbed or Hatebreed, but those to me are just straight forward NU Metal, whereas the new Soto rocks, grooves, has pretty cool hooks, stunning guitar solos throughout from the likes of Jorge Salan, Gus G, Leo Mancini.

 

3. 'Modern metal which is suitable for a younger audience'.....really, in what way? I still enjoy metal riffs if done a cool way with interesting song meanings. And is this really aimed at a younger audience?? The lyrics seem to suggest the opposite...I'd say he's aiming this at people who have had a rough ride in life and won't take anymore bullshit....not young angst ridden teenagers. Ive read the lyrics sheet a few times now and they are pretty true to life in some places....certainly not something I would have thought a teenager would relate to...........

 

For example - the first 4 lines of the album.....

 

A Lifetime of compromise

Emotionally crucified

It's enough that you start to believe it

it's enough to detain and bring u down

 

From 'Break' -

 

Tell me what you think that I'm supposed to do

Story of my life for far too long

Detained by your denial, you won't let me through

I'm here to now convey to you there's something wrong

 

From 'End of Days' -

 

I come from a time when the children just played

Not a care, not a scare like the world of today

All the innocence gone, how do they have a chance

Hear the screams and the cries say 'get out while u can'

 

There's quite a lot of meaning behind these songs, but you have to hear beyond a down turned guitar riff and just sticking your nose up at it, to be able to fully appreciate what he's trying to achieve here. IMHO of course.

 

4. I still think my tastes are pretty consistent. Basically I like a song which fairly intelligent lyrics (doesnt have to be rocket science) which I can relate to - now mainly these types of songs are wrapped up in an AOR feel these days - like Work of Art or Vega. What I am a little bit sick of is stuff like Crazy Lixx, which I would have loved when I was 16, but now just cant get my head around. And also stuff which is incredibly cheesy. As for Steel Panther, well now they are in a class of their own - the Crazy Lixx guys can only dream of writing lyrics that cool and funny ;-)

 

5. When have I ever (ever!!) stated on this forum that I don't like classic heavy metal?? OK, I'll admit that Ive never been a fan of Judas Priest, but I was born and bred on a diet of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Saxon, AC/DC, Rainbow, Dio, etc etc etc. And I still love all that stuff now :-))

 

6. Never, ever, trust a review at Rock Report....................just saying ;-)

 

Cheers