Solefald — Neonism

"Coco Chanel -Welcome to hell. Let me out of my prison cell. I bring you hot towels and flamboyens oils. I'm a cat stuck between transport doors."

This is the refrain from the song 'CKII Chanel No 6'. A great song about the negative effect from the fashion industry. It's one of the punkiest songs on this second album from the Norwegian Solefald.

Solefald play a strange kind of (black) metal. The band is not your standard bunch of satanic-screamers, but something different. Most lyrics are written by Cornelius, who also does the painful sounding black metal shrieks and guitars. The other half of the band is Lazare, who does the normal vocals, drums and keyboards. As you can read, the lyrics aren't the usual black-metal gibberish, but they sound intelligent. Most of them hold up a mirror to todays society. I don't care for lyrics usually, but Solefald have some of the best out there and they are really worth reading.

Solefald are categorised as black metal, but they only use small parts of this genre, like the vocals and some guitar-riffs. They mix pop, classical music, punk, catchy refrains and even trip-hop with it. How strange it may sound, it works! Like the second track 'Speed Increased To Scaffold' (which has some smart references to their first album 'The Linear Scaffold') with it's trip-hop part and blast beats. Or the great 'Omnipolis' which has French lyrics. Backpacka Baba is a funny track about a backpacker and can be seen as the weirdest song on the album. Don't forget to read it's lyrics, they perfect.

I own Neonism for 2 years now and I still like it a lot. The only negative aspect of the album is the weak production. The sound is a bit flat and doesn't fit with the inventive songwriting. Still, I care more about the great songs and lyrics then the production. Solefald really made a statement with this album. Like Lazare mentions on the back of the booklet: "This album is an attack - Mobilize your defense!". I guess this refers to the harsh critics in the metal scene who consider intelligent lyrics, a different approach and great instrumentation something bad.