How easy is for a band to combine pure death metal tunes with some hard rock riffage and a general modern metalcore point of view? I can not tell if this is something easy or not, at least it sounds quite interesting. The Italian death metal band from Padua, SOULPIT seems to experiment in this music venture and the result is not bad at all, although Italy has not used to release death metal staff. "Substantial" is their debut full length album, after the "Trapped Into The Soulpit" Ep of 2006 and Enrico Francescato's vocals draw my attention from the first listening, in spite of the fact that reminding me a lot Dez Fafara, Petri Lindroos, even Mikael Stanner'stimbreand Maurice Swinkels' throat.

"Substantial" is a well-played album with a lot of inspiration, whereas the repetition is something we might meet between the songs' structure, and this is not something necessarily bad. The opening "Forming..." is a quite unusual track to open an album with, because of its bizarre tunes and the hard rock dynamic that carries on its back; the main riff though is rapid and catchy and proves that is the best manner to pass the baton to the continuity. "Reliance In Time" is a typical melodic death metal song and due to its original chorus riff, shows what SOULPIT are capable for. Also, it approves that bands like DEVILDRIVER and DARK TRANQUILITY have marked the whole universal melodic death metal scene and the childes are following their vestiges. And I think that we all agree that's good!

"Close Distance Poem" and "Carved" are some of my preferable tracks of the album because they have an atrocious immediacy that can not leave you indifferent, plus they manage to combine the American and the European death metal element inside them: rapid guitars, non-stoppable riffing, scattered nice melodies flavouring the result and some SENTENCED-esque redolent character in the middle of all these. On the other hand, I find quite unnecessary the addition of the female vocals of SCARECROWN's Antonella Buosi in the "Ephemeral Need"; this song reminds me a lot the reading of A.D.D. and Margie's voice, fact that is not bad, but irrelevant with the rest of the album. Think also that there are plenty of bands with female additions out there; so, there isn't space for another one. On the other hand, "Downfall In Empathy" and "Astray" reveal SOULPIT's ability to modulate according to the occasion because of their variety as different tracks that they are, while "I. For Instinct" could be characterize as the most aggressive composition of the album. However, the closing "Reminiscence" gives us the last shot for some non stopping headbanging and closes the album as "Forming..." opened it, combining melodic death metal with some hard rock riffs and a marvellous solo that surprised me pleasurably.

"Substantial" is a very good album that SOULPIT should be proud of, especially because of Enrico Francescato's excellent vocals who approves his vocalist abilities that can vary a lot and Sebastiano Sartorello's great work in drums, without forgetting Mauro Azzalin's and Lorenzo Canella's guitar skills who depict SOULPIT's sonic landscape with melodic aggression. This album carries different music elements that can cover any melodic death metal taste and also, succeed to combine rock tunes with heavy readings. I hope to hear soon more discographic news from SOULPIT because they deserve it.