Danish misanthropist Emil Brahe hates you, and he wants to make sure you know it. On Let There Be a Massacre, the debut album by his one-man doom-metal project, Sol, Brahe proclaims a death sentence for humankind without filter or subtlety: "Let there be a massacre/ A final death to all,? he gurgles on opener "Centuries of Human Filth.? The hatred intensifies by "The Inanity of Man,? which contains the inspired buzz kill "If only I had a bullet for each human being/ I'd promise this world a miracle.? Colossal slabs of guitar pound with the lethargic pace of a funeral procession; torpid drumbeats drive the nails into the coffin.
Sol has erected a monumental tombstone to the human race, but Let There Be a Massacre loses some of its impact in its inflexible dedication to grimness. Each protracted track uses the same blunt musical approach, the same guttural vocals and the same key to drive home the same point: Humanity is bankrupt and we all must die. Brahe looks up from the void long enough on "Boginki? to admit an accordion and some major key uplift, but then it's back to the burned-out dirges. The desolate accordion/clarinet/banjo instrumental "Apocalypse? at album's end isn't much consolation after nearly an hour of myopic bludgeoning.
This style of funeral doom is oppressive by its very nature, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring. Like the ranting of any soapbox preacher, Brahe's doomsday prophecies get tiresome.
