Harrowing illusions and bestial magickry fuel innately carved vengeance as Seattle, Washington-based speed metal quintet SÖLICITÖR seek to shatter all façade and stare within on this inspired sophomore full-length album. ‘Enemy in Mirrors‘ quickly delivers upon the promise of shadow-borne melodicism and their energetic semblance of true heavy metal character as these folks’ve pulled deeper from their own impassioned expressivity and the dark allure of extreme metal influences to help to pave this new path. Their efforts build a tougher, taller stronghold herein to be sure but more importantly this second album reinforces theirs as a more serious legacy capable of impressive stylized refinement and memorable performance.

Sölicitör formed back in 2018 conjoining current/former members of heavy metal band Substratum and thrash/speed metal group Hexengeist with a not-so distant set of goals in mind. Declarative and militantly high energy speed metal flowed from that point with their first spark of guile arriving with a self-titled EP (‘Sölicitör‘, 2019) soon after. It is a fantastic record highlighted by a plethora of jagged yet rousing riffcraft alongside the spectacle of Amy Lee Carlson‘s vocals where a rugged oft Leather Leone-compared tone and decent vibrato recalled the NWOBHM-to-speed metal era in approach of the mid-80’s. I don’t know if that introduction fully implied the Satan-esque galloping rants and riff-after-riff wail of their fantastic debut LP (‘Spectral Devastation‘, 2020) which I’d named as one of the best of the month upon release. Any listener worth the hair in their ears knows when a band put serious work into their craft, not only putting it to tape but performing it and what these folks compiled for their debut album was inspired as a dark, defiant and authentically shocked-up speed metal album.

Expectations were high for album number two from Sölicitör on my end though I’d have been just as pleased with plain iteration. The one gripe on my checklist was a bit less reverb, less distance in general from the vocals and that much has been sated outright as we’re struck by album opener “Paralysis” to start. If you’re as big a fan of albums like ‘Suspended Sentence‘ as I am you’ll get why this band appeals to me outright per the melodic reach provided by the choruses on that first song. There is a Tim Aymar worthy refrain beyond the choruses and even some “blackened” slow-blasted transitions included as the opener bring some new details to the band’s sound without crippling the anthemic momentum of it. The promise of a darker, more expressive version of the band here already begins to yield results outright.

This is compounded by key single “Iron Wolves of War” which might kick things off with a plain Bay Area thrash groove to start but follows it with a ‘The Somberlain‘ worthy lick in transition to its first verse where the result has this blackened ‘By Inheritance‘ feeling to its quickly shifting, restless movement. Beyond a serious set of riffs Sölicitör‘s guitarists are shredding more than ever here just a couple of songs into ‘Enemy in Mirrors‘ and this more thrashing piece finds several points of insertion for their increasing solo-driven intensity, all of it adding loft to the rasping aggression of the song. Should we consider them a black-thrash metal band just yet? I’m not so sure, but it makes for a doubly intense listen when sparks of extreme metal guitar techniques are deeply woven into a number of key pieces.

On that note I’d suggest the power-speed thrust of Sölicitör‘s sound is somehow not overpowered by induced extremes as we find on the soaring militance of “We Who Remain” where again shades of Pharaoh and even some ‘Rust in Peace‘ chops gnash up towards the end beyond a flurry of solo-flailing crossfire. This is still a heavy metal band though you’ll have to admit they’re on a tear from the outset. The tone built across Side A of ‘Enemy in Mirrors‘ is equally empowered and bleak, an darkly honest scan of the horizon which doesn’t sideline the defiance and kinship of the sub-genre with defeatism. Though it might not be loaded with equally standout compositions I’d felt Side B spoke even more clearly to this attitude with the title track (“Enemy in Mirrors”) and some of the lyrics from “Fallen Angel”, the latter of which is probably one of the more inspired pieces on the album overall via its treading of the underdark around ~2:55 minutes in.

You could make the argument that “Fallen Angel” and “Crimson Battle Beast” don’t stand out as much as the pieces that surround it and I suppose “Spellbound” is briefly a slow burn but there isn’t a moment where ‘Enemy in Mirrors‘ falls into even slightly mediocre treading and I wouldn’t consider any of the ten pieces included filler or dodgeable ilk. Again, the keener eared maniacs abounding will hear the work put into these songs both in terms of their detailed but tradition’d arrange and performance. What makes this all really sing beyond Sölicitör‘s previous LP more than a notch is their somewhat self-produced, or, engineered capture along with mix/master and final rendering from Chris Mannino who’d also worked on some of Substratum‘s records. It is a rare event where a metal band’s ear, their taste level if you will, so brilliantly matches production values to their overall style and sound as it speaks loudly to both self-awareness and their own serious fandom of 80’s heavy metal and its influence alike.

Sölicitör‘ve done what very few heavy/speed metal bands today can in that listening to ‘Enemy in Mirrors‘ doesn’t just generate admiration for the craft on record but has me wanting to hear these songs live. It takes a big personality to topple me out of ye olde ivory tower’d balk and thus far all signs point to these folks being increasingly worthy. Otherwise they’ve overtaken any expectations I’d had for this sophomore album as a darker turn served with no less conviction. A high recommendation.

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