CLOUD OF SOULS - A Fate Decided (Review)

Written by: Blackie Skulless

Indianapolis’s Cloud Of Souls is a fun project due to how much it changed forms during its short run. Mostly, it acted as a side solo gig for Chris Latta, frontman of other Indianapolis acts including the now disbanded Spirit Division and Lavaborne, among others. Running in the background of several different projects likely contributed to the strange evolution, with the first two records falling under the name Christopher Steve prior to the arriving at Cloud Of Souls in 2022. Only two albums surfaced in this era, A Fate Decided in 2023 and A Constant State Of Flux just last year. This style was always a bit tough for me to get behind, however the former release really piqued my interest, so this is what we’re going to cover.

Looking at the project's dark acoustic roots will show why it seems bizarre to see where the project went. Maintaining that grey and somber attitude that the acoustic era saw, the murky feeling simply morphed into something far heavier, even touching blackened territory. At its roots, this is doom metal with a quality degraded to add an almost static effect, feeling like a demo due to the noisy haze. Yet, I would struggle to call this stonery or droney despite the mastermind’s background. Latta’s signature baritone howls cover the cleaner vocal sections, but again, there’s an almost haunting aura that gives things a far more dead feeling than the lively nature of his other projects.

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Pairing with this is the aforementioned blackened side, showcasing an insane dose of grating shrieks that sound extremely competent for how rough the production is. It isn’t even just a simple example of adding them to an otherwise traditional metal template, as some of these songs pack in black metal instrumentation to an extreme degree. “Hiding From Human Eyes” is a fantastic example, loading in pummeling blast-beats and whimpering tremolos for the same uneasy effect, where the title track almost touches epic boundaries, bringing this on from a slower angle. There are still signs of the more straightforward dampened doom approach, like the cleaner and bass-dominant “Unseen Vigil,” but the overall output never lets go of the sinking gut feeling that tugs hard on often-ignored inner uncertainty.

Truly, Cloud Of Souls is hit or miss depending on your preference, all the way down to its blatant “I enjoy the devil’s lettuce” name, but I’ll be damned if A Fate Decided didn’t grow on me with subsequent listens. As someone who’s been around since Hope For Winter, it’s so much fun to look back at the growth. Despite the sheer difference in style, you can at least draw a straight line back to the somber, hazy sadness leaking into where things went. I have to be in the right mood for sure, and one should expect a meek feeling following consumption, but unorthodox compositions aside, this is very much worth your time. (Also, thank you for the free tape, Chris!)

Cloud of Souls - A Fate Decided was released March 29, 2023. Find it here!

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Cloud of Souls can be found at Bandcamp
Cover art: Henry Fuseli's Tiresias appears to Ulysses during the sacrifice