Solo projects are nice little diversion from main projects as it allows you to be yourself and express yourself in your own sound and your own flare and style without being tied down by restrictions. A lot of artists have their own solo projects these days aside from the things they do with other bands. Some have projects under their own names and some make new bands out of these solo projects. If it's the former, the project is usually named after the founding members last name which is a common trend these days as it has been done a lot and one of the latest to use the trend and enter the scene is DARUSSO.

Hailing from Costa Rica, Anton Darusso is a Heavy Metal singer who has been involved with projects such as WINGS OF DESTINY, BELIAL HORDE and DESTINY (check out my review of their "Time" album on this site) and has also appeared on a few things here and there by other artists. Now the time has come for him to put all his experience as a singer and write a solo album that gives him freedom to write songs that will be suited around his voice and preferred style of singing. Having already heard him on the "Time" album by his band DESTINY, I did find his voice to be quite impressive so how does that album compare to his solo album "Medicine For The Soul" which is now available for everyone to hear? Let us find out shall we?

Clocking in at around 62 minutes across 14 tracks, the record opens up with the heavy hitter "This Is Life" which is chock full of heavy guitar riffs, punchy drumming and powerful Metal style vocals which all come together to make an enjoyable opening track.

Throughout the rest of the debut DARUSSO CD, the styles and the sounds used in the music switch themselves around throughout meaning you get a pretty enjoyable blend of different musical styles including heavy hitters such as "Fast Rider", "Free Falling" and "Nothing to Hide", catchy upbeat songs such as "Love is Blind", beautiful slow relaxed songs such as "It's Time For Love", "Frozen Tears", "Ocean" and "One More Lie", and songs that use different styles all in one as "Get Out Of Here", "Medicine For My Soul", "Heaven", "Alive and Kickin'" and "I Live For Love".

Throughout these 14 songs, we are treated to some well crafted material that is always switching around it's styles and sounds meaning that there is never a dull moment as it leaves you in anticipation wondering what style of music will be used next? I also like the use of different instruments on this including guitars, drums, keyboards, string instruments and even jazz instruments as well. Another thing I like is how a few of the songs listed above use a multitude of sounds and styles combined into one including some that have a blues vibe, some with a jazz vibe and some with a funky vibe which all together add a sense of uniqueness to this album.

As far as the performance goes, everyone involved works hard to make great sounding music and that is indeed the case as there is plenty to enjoy including the guitar melodies, the drumming rhythms, the piano/keyboard melodies and of course the punchy vocals which at times do sound a bit hit and miss in a couple of places, but it's not really a mega re-current problem so it's not really something to worry. The production and the mixing is done very well also balancing everything out in the process so the hit and miss vocals in a couple of places soon become a thing of the past and you'll soon find yourself spending more time enjoying the music instead which is what you should be doing.

Bottom line, the debut album from DARUSSO is 14 slices of enjoyable music that all use different sounds and styles that constantly switch as the album goes on which will always leaving you guessing what's coming next. Highly recommended if you like diverse sounding records with enjoyable music and a sense of overall uniqueness which is what this album happens to be as it's unique in the execution of the songs crafted for this enjoyable album.