Hello Metalheads! This is John back with yet another album review! This time I bring to you the new album Souls by Scardust. It was released on July 18th, 2025 via Frontier Music Srl.
Souls is a great symphonic and progressive metal album. The Symphonic label really encompasses an instrumental aspect and also a choral one as well. For some of the passages they must’ve had quite a few people while recording adding to the giant sound. They did a really amazing live performance of their three part suite Touch of Life that ends the album. Ross Jennings(Haken) was a feature and he came and helped perform it. They also had a pretty sizable choir backing them up as well!
Scardust really have such a crazy range in their sound. They do a nice job blurring the line between rock and metal. Songs like RIP has a really nice verse with harsh vocals and almost chugging riffs, but then the next song Dazzling Darkness has a ballad quality to it. The way they craft the melodies throughout the whole album is really great. Textbook lines that rise and fall, all within the crazy range that their vocalist Noa Gruman exhibits so well. Her borderline scat sections in the second movement in Touch of Life are absolutely wild parts as well! Singing then let alone live is amazing.
I also really need to highlight the instrumental passages as well. I love the ways in which the tonality can switch while the band is jamming through material is really awesome. I counted quite a few times where they were playing around with what sounded like a whole tone based section was really cool. Those little Easter eggs are hidden around sometimes make my ears and brain say “ohhhh a piece of candy!” Just like Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
I really enjoyed listening to this album quite a few times since it was released. It’s taken me this long to wrap my head around this album and get them in a document, which is a good thing! In my thoughts I give this a solid 9.5/10 as a score. I need to give this bands other material a deep dive and look forward to whatever is next. As always don’t forget to stream and even buy their music! Links to their socials and streaming will be below!
https://www.facebook.com/ScardustOfficial
https://music.apple.com/us/album/souls/1809418971
https://www.instagram.com/scardust_official/?hl=en
https://open.spotify.com/album/5bRBPbquc0lVk3iWMCyBfG
https://youtube.com/@scardust?si=Nwe7G2QgQEn_pP0_
