SOTHIS -

SOTHIS - DE OPPRESSO LIBER - CANDLELIGHT  
Candlelight Records should not have signed this band. The Los Angeles-based Sothis may sound like a Vader devotee, but this is more Dimmu Borgir and Emperor than death or black metal. The three-word album title easily gives it away of course, but the music speaks for itself. Fast blasting harmonies awash in keyboards, wimpy pop music sinking in synthesizers with a singer croaking as if oblivious to the commercialism of it all. Not to be left behind is the expensive photo shoot with the standard-issue girl in corset harbouring illusions of magnificence. Why Candlelight Records would sign such derivative rabble is beyond comprehension except for the Sothis’ remarkable delusion that Emperor is a good band or a good band worth cloning. As for Candlelight Records, sure De Oppresso Liber will receive the standard eight or nine out of ten ratings from the same old web and magazines, but those sycophants give no other grades and have no impact on anyone’s opinion or buying intention. The label should shore up its finances because between this and Abigail Williams it may be about to find itself in a world of financial hurt.
As far as metal goes, Sothis is as phony as a three-dollar bill. - Ali “The Metallian”