Cheap Sol Veritas Lux (Music) (Sol Invictus) Price

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Customer Reviews of Sol Veritas Lux

Primitive and Raw prelude to a great prolific band.
This is a mixed release of Sol Invictus' first full length, "Against the Modern World" (1987) and the live album recorded in Japan "In the Jaws of the Serpent" (1989) in case you didn't know already.
Those words in the title might make the CD sound bad, but I really enjoy this. If you already have Lex Talionis, imagine that album, but more raw, worse production, more primitive/naïve, and a younger voice of Tony. This album also uses a drum machine for a strange halfway point between electronica/industrial and folk-noir, reminiscent of a few Death in June albums. There are very little symphonic elements compared to their other CDs and it sounds relatively stripped down. There is only a little violin and piano hinted in a couple songs, and the rest is just vocals, drum machine, guitars, and bass.

"Angel's Fall" begins the album with quite catchy acoustic strumming, mysterious synthed-sounding keyboard tones, and an upbeat rhythm. This is probably my favorite song on the cd. "Raven Chorus" has a steady rhythm, a calmer feel, and a nice overlying acoustic melody over the main repeating one. "Against the modern world" is a quite fast (just over 2 minutes) and simple song with female backing vocals. "A Ship is Burning" is a very short and haunting song. "Summer Ends" is a favorite, with what almost sounds like clapping from the drum machine, those mysterious synth-keys, and very catchy, gentle yet straightforward acoustic strumming.

I mostly bought this album for "Against the Modern World," the live recording isn't that great (not that I knew that at the time...). I usually don't listen to the live album, and if it were released by itself, I probably wouldn't even have bought it. (Well, it was released by itself at first, but you can't find it like that anymore)
This also includes "Joy of the World," a somewhat interesting unreleased instrumental, which sounds like it contains the background noises from "Tooth and Claw" from "Lex Talionis"

Many people might not like this album compared to what the band has evolved into today, but it might also be the other way around. I really enjoy everything from their oldest material to their newest material. At least the first part of this album is very worthwhile. Very early music of great artists that now have a huge catalog usually has some special significance and a unique feel.

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One of the best Odinist rock bands
This is one of the best Odinist rock bands around. Very industral and folkish. A must have.

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Hesitantly 4 stars
This is a very mixed release, as is likely when you combine two different releases and combine them into one. The first part "Against The Modern World" is excellent. Some of the songs "Long Live Death", "Summer's End", "A Ship Is Burning" and the "Raven Chorus" are classics. Interstingly they have that kind of post Joy Division-esque/post Death In June type sound and reveal a kind of bridge from Wakeford's DIJ days to the more folky/neo-classical sound of later Sol Invictus. Very cool, dark stuff.

The second part is a live recording which quite frankly is of questionable quality. Yeah, some of the performances are good but the recording just isn't that great in my opinion. If the whole release were like this I would not give it many stars, however te first part is so good and so worth it, that I have to give it 4 stars. The first part is a must have and if the whole cd were like the first half I would have given it 5 stars.