5 Albums I Want To Be Buried With #34: Solothurn!

What’s that you say? Some of the entries in the “5 Albums I Want To Be Buried With” have six albums on them? Who could allow such an abomination? The title of the feature is five so it should be five damn it! A little extra light reading never hurt anyone so who cares? Just don’t read the extra one if you don’t fancy it! Anyway… This week we’ve been chatting to Belfast Northern Ireland based Alternative Metal heads Solothurn who love nothing more than combining melodic riffs with stoner grooves to create a reverb drenched wall of noise. They’re currently working on new material after hitting us with a well received pair of singles in “Hollow” and “Waves” last year and with their diverse range of influences, this makes for an insightful piece.

The premise is simple: “Back in ancient Egypt they believed that the items their Kings were buried with would travel with them into the afterlife and so part of the burial ritual would see the mummified bodies surrounded by chariots, gold and more. Fast forward to now. If there were five albums that you’d want buried in the coffin with you to take to the afterlife, what would you choose?”

Foreword: “Having all grown up in the broadly the same era, we share a lot of similar tastes, but, musically, it’s shaped us in different ways…, so when Metal Noise reached out to us to ask what 5 albums we want to be buried with, we wanted to share a range of the albums that make up Solothurn’s DNA the sum of all parts.”

Ryan (Vocals): “10,000 Days” by Tool

“This was a tough call, as there was a lot to consider. As a vocalist, that’s what I hear first on any song and my range of influences is very diverse. Sometimes it’s Frank and Deano, others it’s Freddie and Elton or Phil and Mike. However, Tool are never too far out of my rotation. Maynard’s vocals are so textured and expressive and on 10,000 days is where I think they really shine. It moves from fragile whispers to primal screams. He really experiments and plays with his vocals on this album. 

Maynard’s use of dynamics, building from hushed, intimate lines into belted, anguished cries is a masterclass in emotional delivery. It shows how the voice can convey grief, faith, and transcendence in a single performance. I also find 10,000 days is a more emotive and immersive album compared to ‘Lateralus’ which is more cerebral and complex. It’s meditative over mathematical, while still having fantastic musicianship and complex movements“

#2. Dee (Guitars): “Hysteria” by Def Leppard

“As a die-hard fan of Death Metal, Thrash, Prog, Stoner, Doom, Grunge, I could really go anyway on this, however, I’m going to throw in something a bit different! 

For me, as a guitarist, Hysteria is the ultimate example of rock guitar done perfectly. Their huge studio budget meant they were able to spend the time to get every guitar part exactly right. You can hear every detail of how Clark and Collen play, from the way they pick the strings to how they bend notes. The guitars sound almost too perfect… The way they achieved that ‘quantized’ precision through analogue recording is mind-blowing – it’s not digital perfection, it’s actually just two incredible players who practised until they were flawless.

What makes this album so special is that it caught Steve Clark at his absolute best. His riffs are heavy but clean, powerful but precise – exactly what he’d been working toward his whole career. The guitar tones are just perfect – thick and punchy without getting messy in the mix. You can really hear how Clark handles the rhythm parts while Collen jumps in with the lead work, and they never step on each other. Every riff, every solo, every harmony part is captured perfectly here. It’s like having a perfect recording of one of the best guitar partnerships in rock history.“

#3. Jamie (Guitars): “Hand Cannot Erase” by Steven Wilson

“Released in 2015 and the second album with which Steven enlists Guthrie Govan on lead guitar, the concept album is (in my book) a modern masterpiece. The album blends dreamy modern soundscapes and instrumentation seamlessly with moments that call back to the best parts of prog stalwarts like Rush, Yes and King Crimson, without ever becoming derivative. Home Invasion/Regret #9 is my stand out track, where Adam Holzmann’s synth solo flows effortlessly into Guthrie’s lead break, both are virtuosically impressive but more importantly an absolute masterclass in how to serve the song. 6.25 onwards is easily my favourite 4 minutes of music ever written.“

#4. Ross (Bass): “Panopticon” by Isis (The Band)

“I had to think long and hard about this one. I have around 10 albums which are almost inseparable for a number of reasons, but sometimes, you just want to avoid cliche’s and naming the obvious albums! This album (Panopticon) came out of absolutely nowhere for me. I was listening to a lot of Tool and The Mars Volta at the time and I got a recommendation from a friend to check out this album. I was hooked from the moment I hit play…

As a bassist, the only way I can sum it up, is that Panopticon is the perfect example of how the low-end can carry an entire album’s emotional weight. Jeff Caxide’s bass work on this album isn’t just holding down the bottom – it’s the foundation that lets everything else breathe and build. The way he uses space and restraint is incredible. 

What blows me away is how the bass interacts with Aaron Turner’s guitar work. Caxide doesn’t just follow the guitar riffs – he creates this interplay where sometimes the bass is leading the charge, sometimes it’s providing this deep, droning foundation, and sometimes it completely drops out to make the return even more powerful. The production captures every detail of his tone, and it’s why I own some of the pedals that I do (Boss RV3/PS3).

This album showed me that heavy music doesn’t need constant aggression to be devastating. Some of the most powerful moments happen when Caxide plays just a few carefully chosen notes that seem to hang in the air forever. The bass becomes this anchor point that lets the band build these massive walls of sound and then strip them back down to almost nothing. It’s patient, intelligent (yet somehow, simple?!) bass playing that trusts the music enough to serve the song rather than showing off.“

#5. Marty (Drums): “King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime” by Faith No More

“I was already a fan of FNM by the time King for a Day was released, but this album changed how I viewed heavy music, and music as a whole. They had already built a strong fan base with their previous output and were never a ‘one note’ band, blending funk and metal at will. Though with King for a Day, no genre was off the table. You have the lounge jazz/Latin vibes of ‘Caralho Voador’, country vibes with ‘Take This Bottle’, Burt Bacharach inspired ‘Just a Man’ and the bombastic big band jazz of ‘Star A.D’. Nothing was off limits and they excelled at each effort. 

My 16 year old mind had consumed so much heavy rock up to that point that I never considered another style of music. King for a Day changed that forever. As a drummer, Mike ‘Puff’ Bordin has always been an inspiration. His playing on this album is some of his best. Tasteful, groove laden hooks shine in every song. No two fills are the same. Tiny subtle differences in how he approaches each verse, bridge and chorus speak volumes of his musical intelligence and imagination. That particular talent has been my biggest inspiration. He’s also played with some of my other favourite artists such as Ozzy, Jerry Cantrell and a brief stint covering for David Silveria of Korn. A true drummer’s drummer.“

#6. Dee (Guitars): “Dirt” by Alice in Chains

“If you’d asked me a few weeks ago, I’d have probably said Master Of Puppets, but after Flemming Rasmussen’s bombshell about recording it slower and speeding it up, I’m revaluating it… So, I’m going with Alice In Chain’s Dirt! It simply has some of the best riffs, song writing, vocals and heartfelt emotion of any album I’ve ever heard. As a kid, it was one of the first albums outside of Metal/Thrash that hit me in an emotional way and changed the way I thought about “heavy” music and what it meant to be “dark” …it’s also sadly prophetic in terms of how both Layne Staley & Mike Starr met early deaths due to drug abuse. It plays like a journey, filled with moments of hope even in the darker passages. Beautiful, horrifying and honest.“