After the squishfest that was Skindred on Friday in Birmingham it was nice to get back to normal for yet another visit to my local and favorite Wolverhampton venue, where once again I’m in attendance of a Ryan McCoombs led band. Last time it was Drowning Pool, this time it’s Soil, along with special guests Adema and Finger Eleven, neither of whom I’ve had the pleasure of encountering before in the flesh.
Foregoing my usual penchant for scoffing copious amounts of hotdogs and burgers for at least 40 minutes. I’m here early celebrating my friend’s birthday so it’s straight to the barrier for me as he’s in the pit for his first time photographing the gig. We don’t have to wait long for Adema to hit the stage and my first note is the eloquently put “Sounds decent!”. “Unstable”, the titular song from their second album is used to kick off their set, and there’s more than a few hints of Korn’s sound about them, along with early Linkin Park, so this will always resonate well with me. Tim Fluckey’s take on their older material is more than adequate and his nod to having been in the here with Soil 20 years previously is a nice nod to the past iteration of the band and their history.
Adema’s drummer is a curiosity as they’re currently listed as a three piece and no matter where I look, I can find no information as to who was behind the kit. Similarly, there’s very little info abounding regarding Adema’s new album release date or track listing and the set for the evening gave me no clues either as seven songs came from their eponymous album, and the remaining track was from the “Insomniac’s Dream” EP, which is “Immortal”, although I’m led to believe that a reworking of this might well find itself onto “Cruel Machine”. There’s a Mortal Kombat video to this, which is something of a giggle! The set is performed well, “Trust” feels especially reflective of the time it was originally released and the sound associated with it, but throughout the sound and musicianship are on point.
Next up, Finger Eleven! These have a different sound completely to what’s gone before, less angst, more rock and a slightly brighter feeling to them. They’re actually one of Canada’s biggest selling bands of all time, driven by much beloved singles and albums, and it’s fair to say they’ve come a long way from a high school in Ontario’s Rainbow Butt Monkeys in 1990, although Wolverhampton perhaps isn’t the greatest highpoint so far! Recording with nigh on the same lineup for 30 years is impressive on its own and from the starting track “Above” there’s a tightness about them that screams familiarity. There’s actually almost a Tool sound to Scott Anderson to begin with, although as noted, without the air of doom and minor key twang that comes out of both Maynard and Johnathon Davis. “Together Right” is a perfect example of this, and this is actually very Shinedown instead, and I’d wager “Young Again” takes inspiration from this track. I lost handfuls of hair trying to remember quite where I’d heard the similar sound so if you’re not buying the similarities I formally request you go check it out before reading further!!
Sorry, I digressed! Where was I? Oh yes, having wrestled out the title above of the Shinedown song it’d be lax of me not to take the chance to move straight to “Slow Chemical” a veritable chokeslam of a song (did you see what I did there?) which has no right to be over 24 years old, which finds its way surprisingly early into the set, much to the joy of some of my companions here for the bands and the birthday. Both guitarists seem to be enjoying themselves even though it’s more of a slow march tempo song, however “One Thing” mellows things down slap bang in the middle of the set. It feels reflective, and looked like it touched a few nerves. That tempo doesn’t last long and “Good Times” sounds like the soon to be on stage Ryan would enjoy singing this! There’s a curious inclusion of Genesis’s “That’s All” leading into “Paralyzer” which made me smile for no other reason than I liked the song and it was unexpected, much like how Skindred slipped in a fair few songs on the previous night. Feeding out of “Paralyzer” was a chunk of “Back in Black” too, and following my theme of “I’ve heard this somewhere before” it took my mind off the fact that their final song had massive hints of “Youth Gone Wild”, Skid Row’s iconic song from so many years back that my hair was brown back then!
Finger Eleven were good. Adema too. I’d see both of them again.
But now I’m waiting on the main event. I’d say something about “ready” and “rumble” but I believe it’s copyrighted!!
Soil don’t take long to land on the stage, but the lighting is incredibly dim. You’d expect this at a Sisters of Mercy gig but here in KKs it’s most unusual. I can feel my photographer’s heart sink as Ryan kicks in with “ReDefine” as even I can barely see features on the band and I’m still at the front. There’s an aggression flowing from Soil that feels different to the Drowning Pool gig from last year. Everything is harder, crasser, almost staccato in its punctuated delivery. Raw would be a better way of putting it. “The Hate Song” keeps up that feeling, the guitar tuned and pitched to set teeth on edge with a vocal angry enough to suit the song title’s emotive expectation. With that in mind I’m aware too that the last time I saw “The One” and “Unreal” they were on a substantially smaller stage in Bilston six or seven years ago and performed in an acoustic set attended by far fewer people than there should’ve been. This time they’re angry, almost feral, and blasted out at pace.
That was most definitely the feeling of the Soil performance on what was a cold Saturday night in Wolves. There was a sense that, things that needed to be done, were going to get done! Quickly! There was a 13 song set, and it was done from start to finish inside 40 minutes meaning a maximum average of three minutes per song! A glance at their Spotify’s top 10 most played songs tells me the same story with seven not notching up over 200 seconds a track! “Way Gone” goes down well, and it’s all about the contrast of the calmness of the almost spoken verse and that visceral vitriol from the chorus’s delivery. There’s a “Black Betty” cover which was entertaining, and “Unreal” gets a proper reception from the crowd as does “Breaking Me Down” as it should with it’s distinctive sound giving the drummer a chance to get in on the act of getting noticed in the parts devoid of other instrumentation, and then it’s nearly over save for “Halo” which is performed as part of the set with vim and vigour, only for Soil to leave the set with a “Thank you” ne’er to return at 22:10 on a Saturday night, a full 30-40 minutes before the norm.
Perhaps everyone had a Halloween thing to go to? Perhaps that’s just the length of set these guys play now and a glance at the gig’s set list the next day tells us that in fact we had one more song than they did, for which we thank you. We also got to see/hear “Enemy X” live, their first new original music in over 10 years, so that too was something and it was met with enthusiastic approval which bodes well for the new album heading our way early next year.
It was genuinely a great evening of music. Each band brought something different to the table, and I’d certainly raise an eyebrow to come see them again were I to find myself in their orbit. Soil for their part were better than decent, rammed full of guitar and ear batteringly loud short sharp shock offerings. I just feel vaguely like the should’ve perhaps had one of Pele’s little blue pills before coming out, and then maybe they’d’ve stood firm just a little while longer.
But hey! As far as “In, out, and put the kettle on” performances go… it was a pretty damn good one! And so what if I wanted a cuddle afterwards!? I got to go to the pub instead! Without even so much as a change of clothes or a washdown! I feel dirty all over now thinking about it.
Well, perhaps not dirty.
Just… mildly Soiled!