It's All Downhill From Here. Solomon

There are albums that go like comets into my ear and albums that creep up on me. It's All Downhill From Here falls into the latter category. Listening to the MP3s did not tell its story properly. This changed when the cd was delivered to me. The full sound on the stereo started to tell a different story. It's All Downhill From Here presented itself as a wide sounding album with a huge sound spanning decades of music somewhere between rock, symphonic, ballads and things Belgian in rock.

Solomon is a Dutch band, from the almost as far south as possible and bordering on the Belgian part of Limburg and certainly our biggest city in the south: Maastricht. This is its first album. Active since 2019 the band was able to play shows before the venues closed. This did not deter it to continue to hone its songs and chops.

The result is an album filled with long-lingering guitar sounds. Every note takes sort of forever before its fades away with a lot of delay and echo in the sound. The result is an album that sounds extremely melancholy and longing for whatever to happen. (I do not know Solomon's dreams but a successful album and shows will be two of them.)

Promo photo: Mitchell Giebels

Koen de Witte sings as if he's Eddie Vedder's younger brother. He has that same dark edge to his voice, making it very characteristic but also less flexible. What you hear is what you get, the whole album. It works quite well in the context of Solomon's music. He floats on top of the music, whether the band is holding back of going full out.

What is also quite clear, Solomon did not nibble on its budget. It hired the well-known experts to make sure the sound and production are as huge as possible. Chris Elms as co-producer and mixer and Tim Debney as engineer. As the band has already played in Belgium and Germany, both very close to Maastricht, the album will have an international release from the start. The ambition shows. It's All Downhill From Here ought to prove itself totally wrong from 20 January, the release date, onwards and fast. Solomon is delivering on the expectations it set for itself. The only way is up, is more likely.

Wout de Natris