After years of chugging away in the underground scene, Wrathchild America underwent a vast transformation to become Souls At Zero. While there are similarities between the two bands, the contrast is nothing short of amazing. Souls at Zero is leaner, tighter and an order of magnitude more focused than anything Wrathchild America ever did. Another huge shift is in the lyrical department, which is an area where SAZ really shines. These songs are definitely not for the "shiny happy" people (who are probably horrified of anything with the mid-range dropped out anyway!), as they touch the darkest parts of the human soul and leave you to wallow around for 60+ minutes. Each of the members are more than adept on their instruments, and they use this to craft really muscular songs. Gone are the bouncy thrash metal riffs and good time songs of WA, instead, Souls at Zero is a reflectance of 4 guys that obviously went through some hard times to come up with this. Rhythmatically, the feel is more along the lines of Helmet, or slow Orange 9mm, tight riffing, and even tighter drumming. Shannon Larkin is stop-on-a-dime here, holding everything together here with martial diligence. While this may be considered "light" by some die-hards, Souls at Zero is for those that get into mid-tempo metal that will increase your awareness as well as your heart rate.

After the release of Six-t-Six, Shannon Larkin left the band after 12 years to join Ugly Kid Joe. Well, his presence is missed, but the replacement, Jamie Miller, adds a whole new dimension to the overall sound of the band. Playing with a looser feel, the songs are allowed to expand their focus. I really liked the directness of Souls at Zero, but I also really get into the beat displacement and rhythmatic challenges that are thrown around here, and the guitar sound is also much, much heavier on this album. The stop/start Helmet songs are present (Strip, Undecided), as well as a good ballad (Inside a Scream). Each release finds the band improving, both in musical and songwriting ability, but even with all these "improvements", I prefer the first album to this one for some reason. The first two songs are just killer, and those riffs will probably be in my head for years, but after a few songs I begin to lose interest, which was not the case on the first release. Still, a good album from a great band, which puts it ahead of most of the stuff floating around out there.