Soaring Above Death is not my first encounter with Italian band Jewish Juice. Despite of their rather silly and non-metal moniker, the band has been doing a great job earlier. These guys have been accused of being anti-communist and even anti-Semitic, and I’m not the one to judge their views, but their imagery and titles somehow take away the focus which should be on music, right? Sometimes I think that they are not even aware of the impact these lyrics, images and religious symbols leave on the potential listener.

Furthermore, Jewish Juice has been described as ‘black and thrash metal’, but I cannot hear much thrash metal here. What I can hear is a black metal foundation, mainly based on growling and screaming vocals, spiced up with some death metal elements.

On Soaring Above Death we get five songs that really show what this band’s abilities are. At some stages the overall musicianship has improved, esp. when it comes to the riffing and tight drumming. On the other hand I have to maintain my initial conclusion that the band and their music is confusing and the whole concept very little innovative. I’m sure that the band has to keep improving and come up with some original ideas if they are to get signed by a major label any time soon.

I’m sorry to say, but for me Soaring Above Death is a step in the wrong direction for this Italian trio and just seems as a bunch of clichés put together.

If still interested to know more about this controversial metal trio from Italy go to: http://www.jewishjuice.it/


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