Review: Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God - The Progressive Subway

Style: Mathcore, Doom Metal, Grunge, Industrial, Synthpop (Mixed Vocals)
Review by: Anthony
Country: USA
Release date: 02-10-2020

A bit of an unusual circumstance in which I’m writing a review for the Subway rather than being a vaguely irritating voice when it comes to talking about how to market the site, but I wanted to step into the reviewer role today for a particularly important album. Greg Puciato is arguably one of the most influential metal vocalists of the 21st century – his work with the unfortunately now-defunct mathcore legends The Dillinger Escape Plan is certainly well known and far from the underground music this blog usually purveys. His other projects, The Black Queen and Killer Be Killed, also have their fun idiosyncracies within synthpop and groove metal respectively, and are worth a listen or two hundred if you’re even vaguely into those genres. So in a post-Dillinger world, the announcement of a solo album from Puciato came as a welcome surprise. As someone just getting into the band at the time (actually a funny story there, do feel free to ask me about it on Discord if you’re curious), it certainly filled me with simultaeneous elation and anticipation, hence my being here today.

Now before we begin this review proper, we must acknowledge the elephant in the room – this album’s release date. Originally due to release independently on 23rd October under Greg’s Federal Prisoner imprint, the album was unfortunately leaked online by a rogue reviewer towards the beginning of this month. Though Puciato took it in his stride and released Child Soldier early on Bandcamp, uploading it to streaming services a week later, it’s worth noting that the marketing campaign of an independent artist which was around 18 months in the making, working almost entirely by himself on all aspects of this release, during a global pandemic, was disrupted by one person thinking they were being awfully smart. I can’t help but feel horrible for the guy, and on that basis it’s worth checking this one out, not least to support the effort put into this project.

Onto the album itself: instantly we’re treated to an acoustic display of vulnerability in the beautiful but brief “Heaven of Stone.” This is swiftly followed by “Creator of God” showcasing a tantalising teaser of the genre hopping to come, exuding an unsettling atmosphere with distorted vocals and a synth-driven beat, accompanied by guitars. That, too, is all too brief before the album explodes into a cavalcade of noise prior to the commencement of the album’s first single – “Fire for Water.” This more mathcore-driven track admittedly wouldn’t feel too out of place on The Dillinger Escape Plan‘s brilliant Ire Works, displaying similar eclectism and providing an equally inspired vocal performance. The track also employs ex-Dillinger alumni Chris Pennie (also formerly a member of Coheed and Cambria) on drums to great effect given the visceral intensity of the song.

After the short spurt of chaos, we hit the grunge influences – hard. The lengthiest full song thus far, “Deep Set” employs an effectively catchy bassline and a tasteful lead guitar performance. Playing both bass and guitars on this album in addition to handling vocal duties, Puciato doesn’t focus on technical proficiency; but the riffs and basslines that carry his brilliant vocal performances are also impressive enough to not be completely overshadowed. A moment of disbelief next – I’m left wondering if I accidentally pressed the wrong button on Spotify and wound up shuffling an album by the aforementioned synthpop project The Black Queen – because that’s exactly where the next two tracks, “Temporary Object” and “Fireflies” go. The former is one of my favourite tracks on the album, impressively combining the vibe of a synthpop song with some (again, tasteful) guitar soloing, and the latter brings with it another more passionate and vulnerable vocal performance.

At this point in the review you might be reading along and wondering, simply: “grunge? synthpop? is this prog?” and the best answer I can provide is: that’s entirely up to how you interpret what progressive music is, sweetie. On a personal level, while the songs aren’t technically driven or particularly lengthy, the sheer amount of variety this album brings fits the bill – it’s certainly not approaching the album format in a conventional “consistent-sound” way, but despite the jumps from grunge to synthpop to other genres as we will soon discuss, nothing feels out of place and the flow doesn’t feel off at all. In addition, the central themes and mood of the album remain broadly similar throughout and I would argue that in some ways that’s more important than consistency in genre and sound – to me, if pulled off properly, that can easily be construed as a progressive record.

While you were thinking about that, though, ol’ Greg was loading up yet another surprise genre-shift for you. We’re in riff city – population: 82588 (get it?). Terrible puns aside, standout song “Do You Need Me to Remind You?” immediately drops into a massive riff, complimented by a ball-busting bassline and one of the best clean vocal performances on the album. It’s the closest to doom metal this album gets and it’s honestly glorious. Chris Hornbrook, ex-drummer of Poison the Well, also throws himself onto this song (and “Deep Set”) rather tastefully. After the riffs fade, we get some terrifying screeches serving as an interlude of sorts, setting the tone for an even heavier number – “Roach Hiss” is probably the most brutal this album gets, with a remarkable harsh vocal performance comparable to Dillinger‘s “Limerent Death” and some frankly immense drumming from Killer Be Killed bandmate Ben Koller (perhaps better known for his work with Converge and Mutoid Man among way too many other bands).

From here, metal elements are few and far between, only cropping up in a handful of places – the 90s-inspired anthem “Down When I’m Not” feels as though it was a lost track dug up from the 1994 indie mixtape your “hip uncle” used to jam on his Walkman when he was attempting to skateboard his way through a midlife crisis, and brings a more upbeat energy to the proceedings. As has become the norm with Child Soldier though, the dynamic instantly switches with “You Know I Do” and “Through the Walls” both being more stripped-back pieces that serve as the emotional centrepiece of the record, once again providing a refreshing vocal performance from Greg, and not in ways we’ve really heard prior to this album. This is swiftly followed by the one-two punch of “A Pair of Questions” and “Evacuation” respectively; well placed songs that become a couple of the album’s highlights, contrasting more delicate synthpop tendencies with some hard-as-Nine Inch Nails-inspired industrial that additionally utilises Puciato’s visceral harsh vocals. Following this is “Heartfree”, a more guitar-driven ballad piece that brings with it perhaps the most heartfelt vocal performance this album has to offer, and some nice, if brief, inclusion of guitars. The record caps off with the somewhat industrial-tinged “September City” bringing one last metallic crescendo just as you got used to the lack of riffs being lovingly injected into your earholes, and with that, the dust settles on this behemoth of a record, bringing with it a deserved feeling of elucidation.

I’ve made Child Soldier sound pretty close to perfect so far, and to its credit, it very nearly is. It doesn’t fall majorly short on anything in particular, though I do wish for more forays into the doomier sound established in “Do You Need Me to Remind You?” just because that was done so well. I also think the album goes on just a bit too long for my taste, but I also don’t think any one track particularly deserves to be left off the record – these type of flaws that I speak of, granted, are mostly nitpicking. On a broader note, vocally the album is an audial feast, but that’s to be expected from one of the most versatile vocalists in metal. In terms of lyrical material I don’t have any real complaints, as someone who pays more attention to vocal performance than lyrics in metal it’s all pretty standard fare in that regard. Production-wise, no real issues either – the mix, especially on the heavier songs, really works with the sound that Puciato is going for.

All in all, Child Soldier: Creator of God, successfully manages to integrate a number of different influences and genres into this sonic pastiche in a coherent fashion, making for an extremely impressive debut solo outing.

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Recommended tracks: Deep Set, Temporary Object, Do You Need Me to Remind You?, A Pair of Questions, Evacuation, Heartfree
Recommended for fans of: All other Puciato projects, Alice in Chains, Drab Majesty
Final verdict: 9/10

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Related links: Bandcamp | Website |Facebook

Child Soldier: Creator of God was released on Greg’s independent imprint – Federal Prisoner.

Greg Puciato is:
Greg Puciato – vocals, guitars, bass, synth, programming
Ben Koller – drums
Chris Hornbrook – drums
Chris Pennie – drums