Review: Sold Soul – Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely

Artwork by: George Nickels

Style: Deathcore, Blackened Deathcore (Mixed vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, Whitechapel, Distant, Angelmaker
Country: North Carolina, United States
Release date: 9 May 2025

A surefire way to catch my attention is with an overwrought song title. Though bands like Alexisonfire have graced me with such gems as “Water Wings (& Other Poolside Fashion Faux Pas)” and “It Was Fear Of Myself That Made Me Odd,” it is often within the dim and slimeridden kingdoms of metal’s extremes where the shiniest treasures await. Offerings like “A Kingdom Built Upon the Wreckage of Heaven” (Outergods); or, to pluck a more “mainstream” example, Nile’s 2024 head-turner, “Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes.” Yes, really. Before I run up any more of this word count limit, let me get to the stake, er, point.

This peculiar affliction of mine found me ensnared by North Carolina deathcore outfit Sold Soul and their 2022 sophomore LP, I Hope We Make It Out of This Alive; specifically, their song “Something’s Breathing in the Hallway, I Live Alone.” The spine-tingling track title, coupled with the Edward Gorey-esque album art, beset my mind with scenes of a bristling nightmare desecrating the idea of home as a safe haven. To my delight, the music begot doom-ridden and Gothic intentions. Crushing riffwork and howling leads backboned by foundation-rattling drums and foreboding atmosphere, with mainman Stevie O’Shaughnessy’s tortured roars and baroque cleans digging into this twisted firmament like a last grasp at sanity. Bespoke violin creeping across the tracklist like an icy shiver down the spine. Their style of deathcore is more deliberate than contemporaries like Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, To The Grave, etc.; more stalking nightmare than relentless assault.

Now, having in fact made it out alive after a three-year silence, Sold Soul return with third full-length, Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely. With cover art evoking Where’s Waldo shot through the prism of Hell, I have one question: Will Sold Soul’s return stand out, or is it destined to fade into the crowd, faceless and forgotten?

Sold Soul waste no time re-establishing their haunted-house vibes on “As Whisper, or As a Bellow,” with a menacing guitar line stretched across thundering double-bass kicks and O’Shaughnessy’s razored growls. There’s familiarity in the way the track moves from staggered lurching to headlong chase, the creeping tension melting away in the face of a full-on death metal assault before returning to a mid-paced hunt, complete with animalistic snarling and inhuman shrieks. O’Shaughnessy breaks out the cleans towards the end, pitched low and steeped in Draculian grandeur. As the album’s second-longest cut, “As Whisper, or As a Bellow” sets the tone well for what’s to come.

“For I Can Endure No Longer” sees a greater balance of clean and harsh vocals, crafting an operatic melancholia which pairs nicely against the bladed surge of the guitars. Follow-up “To Spit Contempt on the Tail of Every Uttered Word” veers into cartoonish deathcore waters with an extended run of barking, but manages to right the sails with a grooving bass section, jazzy drumming, and ethereal vocals by guest Kukielle. There’s a surprisingly Ithaca-adjacent taste to “Howl,” with its white-noise riffage and lock-step drum rolls, bringing measures of metallic hardcore to Sold Soul’s benighted feast table. I can almost hear Djamila Azzouz’s flensing shrieks toasting the event. The band even whip up a sadboi ballad in “Although I May Love You, I Must Leave You Here Alone,” a vibes-heavy cut which foregoes all heft and lets O’Shaughnessy flex his melodious pipes in all their melodramatic glory.

Deathcore is a genre of absolute extremes: big, bombastic, and excessive, with vocalists performing what amounts to the demonic version of pop singer vocal acrobatics—regardless of necessity. Sold Soul, refreshingly, understand that “excess” does not always equal “success.” O’Shaughnessy drives his roars down the middle lane, with only a few snarls and screeches peppered in for taste. His aforementioned cleans are perhaps the most dramatic weapon in his arsenal, and in another context they could be considered over-much; he has a tendency to lean into Gothic drama with his delivery, dipping low and soaring strong. However, by layering them against similarly rich and melodramatic music, the band manage to create a harmonious pairing where each element supports the other.

Sold Soul also refrain from the genre’s often cookie-cutter template, where every song becomes an exercise in executing a mammoth breakdown. They have their own formulas to watch out for (opening multiple tracks with creeping guitar lines along a mid-tempo plod), but by and large Sold Soul’s approach to deathcore feels delightfully reserved and atmospheric by comparison, more interested in crafting actual songs structured around varying (dour) moods, as opposed to simple vehicles for brutality and vocal gymnastics.

Yet, for all the enjoyment I’ve had with Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely, it is not without fault. “That Stranger in the Red Suit, and the Many Things He Promised Me,” derails the album’s doom-drenched vibes with a goofy “band members talking and joking” moment in its closing seconds. Penultimate track “I’ve Forever Yearned for an Angel of Mercy and Warmth to Sing Out My Name and Rend Me from My Earthly Sorrows; Yet Throughout All the Years of Idle Longing, I’ve Only Ever Heard a Profound and Crushing Silence” attempts to patch up the holes in the ozone by reinforcing the morose tones and predatory aggression of which the album had drawn its strengths, but never quite recovers from this point forward. Closer “When You Finally Realize How Small You Really Are” amounts to little more than nine minutes of atmosphere. It’s pensive, sure, flaunting some The Thing-esque “bum-bums,” but fails to do anything interesting with its runtime. The last three tracks are bonus cuts and feel disappointingly tacked-on, especially originals “Child of Night” and (second) interlude “I Am So Unbelievably Unhappy,” which may have served better had they been folded elsewhere within the album’s tracklisting. As is, this decision leaves the tail end of the album’s sixty minutes struggling to reclaim its mojo.

If prior entries in the Sold Soul pantheon enticed you, then Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely will undoubtedly keep you in the fold. The band have hardly strayed from their formula here, yet there’s enough iteration to keep things from sounding like a rehash of I Hope We Make It Out of This Alive (beyond the distinct lack of featured contributors).¹ If deathcore’s excesses have turned you away in the past, there’s a possibility Sold Soul’s more deliberate and mood-focused approach may create an exception, possibly even an inroad. Though I can’t answer my earlier question—will Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely fade or stay in memory?—I can say that I’ve largely enjoyed my time with the record. And since the future is never a guarantee, it makes moments like this feel like a win.

Recommended tracks: To Spit Contempt on the Tail of Every Uttered Word, A Lament for an Abandoned Heaven and All Us Who Lay Beneath, Howl, Child of Night
You may also like: Paganizer, Into The Silo, Cognitive, Face Yourself, Zeolite, Euclid
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RateYourMusic

Label: Crestfallen Records – Facebook | Official Website

Sold Soul is:
– Stevie O’Shaughnessy (vocals, songwriting)
– Abiayup (songwriting, mixing)
With guests:
– Kukielle (additional vocals)
– Josh Null (additional drum compositions)

1. I Hope We Make It Out of This Alive is stacked with features: Stu Block (Into Eternity, Iced Earth), Brittany Slayes (Unleash the Archers), Chris Wiseman (Currents, Shadow of Intent), Matt Perrin (Angelmaker) ↩︎