On Thursday September 26th Dope, Soil, and Leaving Eden teamed up for an evening of heart pumping metal at The Drunk Horse Pub in Fayetteville NC. With Dope being the warriors they are on the scene 17 years now and released 5 records in that time, a rejuvenated Soil with Ryan McCombs back on vocals, and up and coming band Leaving Eden the night would prove to be energy packed and full of excitement.
Opening things up with Boston, MA based female fronted hard rockers Leaving Eden. Having toured all over the USA spreading the word and creating a buzz the band released Between Heaven And Hell in September 2012. The record has received a positive response over the past year and helped the band land themselves on tour with Dope and Soil. Fronted by Carole Gynan, the band performed amazingly well and the fans really took to their sound. More often than not opening bands sound quality is below the rest of the bands on the bill whether it be their fault or not. This was not the case with Leaving Eden as their sound quality was off of the charts. Engaging the crowd the band even surprised the fans by tossing out some merchandise from the stage as a gift to those in attendance. The band has a high energy guitar approach that is not only catchy, but one that people will be happy to buy a cd and jam out to.
Next up were alternative metal veterans Soil. Originally formed in 1997 the band achieved the high of their success with the album Scars (2001). The record spawned such rock radio hits as “Halo” and “Unreal”. Riding high from the record the guys released their follow-up Redine (2004), also a successful record for the band. The album peaked at # 78 in the Billboard 200 chart and the single “Redefine” which charted was their most successful to date. Unfortunately due to internal issues Ryan McCombs left the band to be with his family. At the peak of their career Soil was not ready to pack it up and call it a day and recruited A.J. Cavalier to take over as vocalist. Cavalier did a fine job for the band appearing on True Self (2006) and Picture Perfect (2009). With the departure of long time members Shaun Glass (guitarist) and Tom Schofield (Drums) along the journey, Soil suffered the lose of Cavalier on vocals in 2010. Being determined to keep the band going the band recruited Jordan Lee for a year of touring to fill in on vocals. It was in 2011 when something rather unexpected happened for Soil, Ryan McComb departed from his duties with Drowning Pool and returned as vocalist of Soil. Many would say McCombs was back where he belonged and all fans were ecstatic about the news. The rejuvenated band released their newest album Whole back in August and appear to have new life in the hard rock scene.
A packed room of Soil fans were completely enthralled in the band’s performance. There was not a person in the building who was not on their feet throughout their set. Metal horns were thrown high in the sky and the energy was high. McCombs even surprised the fans performing the Drowning Pool song “37 Stitches”. McCombs clearly appears happy to be hack in Soil again and went on to say that it really touched his heart seeing so many great fans that have followed him and his band mates through all of the years. Mixing in some of their classic tunes over the years the band also sprinkled in 3 new tracks off the Whole (2013) album. McCombs was completely engaged in his emotions that he ended up going in the crowd to sing his heart out while fans surrounded him in a circle chanting. You could certainly tell that Soil was back, better then ever, and ready to take on the world.
Closing out the evening were Chicago based alternative metal band Dope. Having made a name for themselves over the past 17 years Edsel Dope has kept the music of Dope alive. Sustaining numerous line-up changes album to album Edsel has not strained from pumping out quality music. With long time member Virus currently working with David Draiman in Device, Dope is sporting a new touring line-up including Dan “Dubbs” Fox (drums), Nick Dibbs (guitar), and Jerms Genske (bass). Keeping the ball rolling Dope recently released a teaser video for their new song “Drug Money”. The song will appear on the band’s upcoming album Blood Money, to be released in March 2014.
One thing was clear as you looked around the room, Dope still has a very strong dedicated fan base which loves to see them perform. With a high energy set including some of the band’s most popular tracks such as “Bitch”, “Debonaire”, and “Die Motherfucker Die” the crowd was definitely satisfied. Fans showed an epic response with constant head banging and crowd chants. Edsel Dope could not get enough of the love and appreciation that he was getting from the fans. Edsel continued to please the crowd giving them the ever popular song “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”. Over the years since Dope released this track it’s become as much theirs as it has the song’s origin Dead Or Alive.
Edsel Dope remained interactive with the crowd throughout the set asking numerous of them questions trying to get a response, and he certainly did. As the set closed out fans were so into the music all cheered in unison “One More Song”. Dope’s stage presence and full guitar sound was off of the charts. Being four years since the release of No Regrets (2009) it’s clear that after being hiatus for a bit that Dope are ready for rock hard again.
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