Polished, Crushing, and Brute, Soul Glo provides a refreshing hardcore punk record for the black community on 'Diaspora Problems'.
Hardcore Punk, one of the genres that definitely spurred a lot of defiant rage surrounding the political topics that it shreds through. Characterized by its furious manner of pissing the aggressors that the genre targets through the manic melodies, riveting (and sometimes overboard) political commentary, and whirling performances that will leave the listener fried. It’s also important that it’s a genre that doesn’t bring varied perspectives, especially when the genre was still going through its revolutionary peaks and steeps. While Bad Brains certainly remained important towards the evolving mold of Hardcore Punk when it comes to bringing in perspectives of people of color, it mostly stayed the same till now.
Enter Soul Glo and their brand of brash Hardcore Punk. The rougher patches of their past records can be a tough sell, where the rough touchups in the performance and production cloak the blunt but poetic writing. Things have gotten a bit better through the EPs that they have put out from 2020 to 2021. And with the production tightened up in small degrees, the screamo performances bulked up its menace, and lyrical writing pulled all the stops in those EPs, this might reflect on the album that they have finally released for this year.
For Soul Glo, the record definitely showcased the most polish and brightness of their entire career thus far. It’s not only apparent on the production side of the record, but also in the vocal performance, the melodies, and the entire thematic focus that this album is aiming to target. It’s definitely a needed shift to have especially when their past records don’t really cut through when their messages are slipped away from the rough filters. Thanks to this polish, you can hear more of the screams propagate on the mix in ballistic fashion and the rowdy noise that bullets all across the record thanks to the punishing guitars and drum melodies. While the lack of hooks might distract or push away those who want to prefer melodic structure than chaotic tones, Soul Glo manages to bring enough grooves that will bounce and swirl across the tracks. Their sonic carnage creates an impact on the lyrical aspects of the record. To keep it concise, Soul Glo’s thematic trails are in relation to the struggles of black communities and their strained relationship with the politics that don’t exactly uphold their virtues that good, but there are more layers than that as it paints the vocalist’s views on other struggles with depression, military actions, capitalism, and family values that might not exactly hold up in an era where black communities are still struggling to live. It essentially compresses into a loop of downbeat emotions where the possible solution to all of this bullshit might be the act of violent demure towards leftist politics that don’t proceed with their promises as the black community carries heaps of fear and exhaustion to just find some peace in their everyday lives and the alt-right politics that will push down black society in either shape or form, which makes the lack of choruses compensated for brute force a lot of sense. And speaking of brute force, Soul Glo definitely put out a round of these in the record. The opening stomper of ‘Gold Chain Punk (whogunbeatmyass?)’, the drilling rhythms of ‘Coming Correct Is Cheaper’, the moshpit ready thrashing of ‘Jump!! (Or Get Jumped!!!)(by the future))’, the jazz rhythms of ‘Thumbsucker’, the galloping progressions of ‘(Five Years And) My Family)’, the locked-in crash of ‘The Thangs I Carry’, The cooldown and breakdown of ‘John J’, and the closer that gets furious after the cooldown on the featured verses of ‘Spiritual Level Of Gang Shit’.
While it took a lot of listens to finally get through the ragged noise and the tumbling screams and tempos, it’s up to the listener if they might tilt their heads or get more of an understanding view of the lyrics. Personally, it did take some careful thought towards what Soul Glo is trying to aim at the lyrical aspect because it’s a record that feels aimed for the black community and it’s with that consideration that needs to be discussed in a way that doesn’t stumble off the line. It needs to be reminded because, there is empathy to be explored with the exhausting struggles that black people in America has gone through for decades and the fact that even if they do lean their heads on the shoulders of leftist authorities, the fact that their cries for a better life is still either unheard or pathetically responded to, so it is extremely understandable that there will be people in black communities that will cling to that solution towards furious on both sides of the political spectrum. And that’s possibly the few nitpicks that popped up in the record where the solution that was presented for the many conflicts in the record doesn’t really apply for a broader collective standpoint, which is not exactly an issue because it feels rather justified nonetheless, only not that applicable for the folks that might not nestle in leftist politics. It’s a complicated discussion that will definitely go over the heads for some privileged groups of people out there, white critics and listeners especially. For the other nitpick, it might just be some composition abrasions that don’t exactly click that well, especially with tracks like ‘driponomics’ with its abrasive rap approach that sticks out like a sour thumb or the sudden production and rhythm swerves of ‘GODBLESSYALLREALGOOD’ that doesn’t succeed that well.
To compress the personal thoughts of this record, even if the lack of hooks is a nitpick that could’ve improved the melodies of the record, there’s no denying that Soul Glo improved in spades from their past records in terms of production, performances, compositions, and lyrical potency. It’s definitely a record where the anarchy punk stripes might not fully stick for those who may not be crazy about punk music or those who may not be agreeable with the brute political statements on this record. But look, it’s not just about white people in punk music who has to say necessary statements for their communities, people of color need it too, and Soul Glo is going to be a punk band that will deserve more attention, especially for the black communities that may need their rage unfurled.
Favorite Tracks: Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?), Coming Correct is Cheaper, Driponomics, John J, Spiritual Level Of Gang Shit, Thumbsucker, (Five Years And) My Family, The Thangs I Carry
Least Favorite Track: Driponomics