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Album Details

• Artist: Soniminos
• EP:
Canvas Met The Quota
• Label: indie
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: kev_stev on 2007-08-20

Media

The cover of Canvas Met the Quota, Soniminos’ second EP, is an accurate portrayal of what you will find inside: a maelstrom of spiraling colors forming behind the faceless grimace of mass murderer Howard Unruh—an illustration of aesthetic chaos that is as brilliant as it is twisted.  Canvas is an unequivocal metal album that explores ideas like the disillusionment in society while offering detailed macabre images through profoundly ominous lyrics, “his dried skin keeps me warm / a cadaver still shaking, I am my savior,” all of which are expressed through incessant screams, varying in pitch and length.  The instrumentation throughout this entire EP is ceaselessly heavy as well; heavy metal guitar riffs and percussive drumming are the imperative backbone to Canvas, which never deviates from its metal roots—rocking hard for fifteen jaw-dropping minutes.

Canvas Met the Quota begins with “Recycle Your Friends,” a song evidently influenced by the killings of Howard Unruh with lyrics like “thirteen slaughtered dead in twelve,” a direct allusion to Unruh’s twelve minute murdering spree.  Beginning with a distant whistling sound and guitar feedback, a sadistic voice conversationally states, “I’ve got something for ya, clarkie…”  With that, the song explodes into intense screams, rapid guitar playing, and fast-paced drums, bleeding into a guitar solo, back into feral screaming and ending tumultuously—allowing fans to take one last deep breath before delving into the next four songs off of Soniminos’ relentlessly heavy EP.

An interesting aspect to Canvas is its intermittent spoken interludes that coalesces the metal features of hard rock with the cinematic characteristics of a horror film.  The cinematic interludes also add depth and emphasis to the songs, notably “Lanced and Quartered,” the EP’s third song, where what sounds like an older man states with conviction, “I accuse you of a wasted life, the penalty for that is death.”  Further into the song, a child states in a monotone, dreary voice, “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America,” an exemplification of current society’s acquiescence to what the government mandates.

The album’s final track “Somnambulist Serez Cerement” is a triumphant closer to Canvas; beginning with a multitude of feral screams and fast-tempo guitar, the song progresses forward as the last interlude plays and Soniminos emphatically scream utilizing start/stop dynamics.  The closing minutes to the song are contagiously powerful as lead vocalist Ryan Sardoni lets out a series of screams, ending with the image, “the ground is my relief.”  Closing the song with an extended period of winding guitar riffs and penetrating strikes of the drums, Soniminos’ second EP concludes and the experience is over, though Sardoni’s carefully crafted lyrics demand further explication, the meticulous instrumentation demands further listening, and the album’s cohesive brilliance demands a place in your respective CD player, stereo, etc. forever.  Highly recommended.

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