Black Soul on stage

"New direction. New music. New sound. New band."

All of the above was on display at Abnormal last night as Felicia Black debuted her new band, Black Soul. I'm not sure what has become of her previous band Smart Blondes (previously Nine Inch Heels) but I was eager to see how this new project would compare.

Before that though, I caught the tail end of the evening's support set. I'm not sure who the band were and it seemed like they were just a covers band so I don't really have much to say about them. And, honestly, I don't mean this in a mean way, but I was a bit distracted with other things so I was just more interested in finding somewhere to park my bum while I busied myself on my phone while waiting for the headline act to arrive.

And it didn't take long for Black Soul to hit the stage following a very quick turn around after the conclusion of the support act's set. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay until the end and take in the whole set. I must say that I was impressed by the 50 or minutes that I did manage to catch though. If my presence hadn't been required elsewhere, I 100% would have stay for the entirety of their show.

Amongst the tunes performed were some that I think were completely new (such as I Don't Care), some that were new interpretations of older songs from Smart Blondes (see Big Hard Rock and Nymphomania amongst others) and, I think, an interesting metal version of one of the instrumentals from Felicia's stellar Cast Call soundtrack EP.

In comparison to her older work, I'd say that this body of work definitely has a more cohesive and consistent sound across all the songs. primarily straddling the lines between alt-metal and nu-metal. That means there's not really any of the industrial metal influence that I did like about her previous work, or any of the many others flavours that got sprinkled in to create a rich tapestry of sounds

But I feel like the more focused and consistent sound demonstrated here is a strength, allowing songs to bolster each other by seamlessly sitting next to one another rather than feeling disconnected and sometimes slightly awkward bedfellows when included together in the same setlist. That said, I will admit that Nymphomania is one where I did kind of miss the industrial flavour of the original version but sometimes its just easy to want to stick with what is familiar rather than what may actually be better.

So yeah, along with the new line-up of musicians behind behind, Felicia certainly delivered on the promise of  a new direction, new music with a new sound and a new band. Go check out their debut, self-titled album, Black Soul, over on Soundcloud.