Greg Puciato ‘Child Soldier: Creator of God’: Solo album on self-realization blends heavy metal with ambient notes
American heavy metal musician Greg Puciato is active since 2001 and best known as the vocalist of the American metalcore band, The Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP). However, the band disbanded in 2017 but his other band known as The Black Queen (TBQ) became his second home as he continued to stay active there, since 2015. Cut to 2020, the 40-year-old vocalist has released his debut solo album titled ‘Child Soldier: Creator of God.’
“I don’t have a mission statement. I just do what feels exciting to me,” Greg Puciato says about his solo debut, ‘Child Soldier: Creator of God.’ But it’s also where he’s at creatively after 16 years in the trenches with The Dillinger Escape Plan, and a few more years making a completely different type of music with The Black Queen. On his new album, Puciato integrates the unhinged aggression of DEP with the electronic textures of TBQ while simultaneously branching out into a constellation of new directions.
“This record is me declaring ultimate freedom,” Puciato says. “With The Black Queen, I wanted to do something completely opposite from The Dillinger Escape Plan and show everyone that I’m more than just one thing. Ultimately, I realized that I’m both of those things—and all of this other stuff, too.”
Puciato plays everything on ‘Child Soldier: Creator of God except drums, for which he enlisted his friend Chris Hornbrook of Poison The Well, former DEP drummer Chris Pennie and his Killer Be Killed bandmate (and Converge drummer) Ben Koller. The album was produced by Nick Rowe, who has worked with everyone from Lamb Of God and KBK to Vampire Weekend and Madonna has been mixed by Steve Evetts (DEP, The Cure).
Puciato’s brand new project comes packed with powerful 15 songs and opens with ‘Heaven of Stone’ which is an 85-second acoustic track. It might convince you that the metalcore artist has gone folk because there you won’t get to hear any metal music in this one. ‘Creator of God’ is a 4 minutes and 5 seconds beat throbbing song where the metal magic actually takes over. The song can be tagged as an experiment as it is tracks like these which are rare to hear in a heavy metal album. Next in the line is ‘Fire For Water’ which greets you with a powerful drum set synced with heavy rough vocals of Greg Puciato. The song might remind you of the band Nine Inch Nails at some places.
We absolutely loved how Puciato has composed ‘Deep Set’ with his unmistakable vocals and for us, it is definitely one of the best tracks from ‘Child Soldier: Creator of God.’ The song surely has a hint of metal but does sound different and that’s how Puciato takes ‘Deep Set’ into unmarked territory.
Four songs into the album and we can know how special the album is. Puciato goes for yet another experiment in ‘Temporary Object.’ His vocals are smooth and the typical guitar screeching is missing until we reach half-way. The track feels like a breath of fresh air and is an unusual placement in a heavy metal album. If you love Puciato’s work in The Black Queen, then you will surely vibe with ‘Fireflies.’ The song runs for 4 minutes and 39 seconds on the clock, and is more in the dance and electronic space. As we were getting into a groovy and dancehall mood, ‘Do You Need Me To Remind’ completely flows in the opposite direction messing with our moods. The lyrics of the song goes like, “Burn dead inside your home, you pick the hand and/ I’ll cast the stone, blood beaten from your bones/ Wilted the flowers, I’ll make them grow/ And you still believe, that you could chase a dream/ You’re nothing, no one.” The song is bumpy with a lot of creative twists and turns. Also, it is the longest song in the album with 6minutes29seconds on the clock.
The next song lined-up in the album is ‘Roach Hiss’ and is not for the faint-hearted. The track is bound to make you uncomfortable and dismantle your guts. It is as gory as it can get which will surely prove to be a treat for the heavy metal fans. ‘Down When I'm Not’ sounds like an experimental 90’s British pop act and it is neither a bad song nor an exceptional one.
However, the music played in the same pattern throughout the track might irk the listener off by a little. ‘You Know I Do’ has all the potential of being a minimalist masterpiece, but it plays on for 6 minutes and 8 seconds which is a bit too much. It can be skipped if you are not a fan of this kind of music.
‘Through The Walls’ again makes us think about how should we label this album as Puciato again places a soft number in the middle of a metal album. This experiment might work if the listeners plug-into the album without any expectations. The American artist softly croons, Through the walls, I can’t hear you/ Through the walls, you won’t hear me/ Careful to not disappear, offering dreams to the dawn/ Nothing’s impossible here, still we can’t go on”...
Fans who love ambient pop can surely listen to this one. Continuing his love for ambient songs, ‘A Pair of Questions’ has been composed as a synth-pop number, and this where you feel Puciato has completely taken advantage of his creative freedom. He has made sure his debut solo album is here to stay for long.
‘Evacuation’ is the song where we absolutely dig the vibes of Puciato’s vocals and the music is at its supremely best. The song offers an authentic view of Greg Puciato’s inner soundscape. With ‘Heartfree’ Puciato comes back home with guitars and drum-heavy sounds topped with the singer’s voice which echoes his inner troubles. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece and shines brightly from the entire tracklist of ‘Child Soldier: Creator of God.’ The album ends with the part-ambient part metal track ‘September City.’
Puciato builds the song with a slow piano and then goes ballistic on guitar and drums. He screams on this up-tempo rock track to match the background score and leaves an intense mark on the listeners. In a nutshell, Greg Puciato succeeds in giving a sublime experience to his listeners. It could not have got any better.
In the end, the album is about self-realization. “I’m just trying to be the most me version of me that I can possibly be,” Puciato says. “The times in my life when I’ve been depressed or felt severe anxiety and panic, I look back on them now and I realize it’s because I wasn’t being a hundred percent real with my representation of myself. But now that I can do whatever I want, I feel fucking great.”
‘Child Soldier: Creator of God' is out now via his record label Federal Prisoner and you can stream it here.