In the Studio with Solace — Dec. 21, 2025
Posted in Features on December 22nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
It had been a couple months of scheduling and busy weekends and such, then a snowstorm last week, but I arrived at the red barn where Solace were recording their next album at noon and was, unsurprisingly there before the band. They’ve been chipping away on this record since the end of August, and with most of the instruments done, today was continuing vocals and whatever else. Happy Solstice.
First, I went to the wrong barn –typical — and so got to recommend Solace to the neighbors, who said they were stoners. They were kind enough to show me where I was actually headed and 
when I got to what at the time I didn’t even know was called the Pussycat Club (killer vibe), both engineer Jeff Tareila and Eric Rachel, the latter of whom is a Jersey legend, were hanging out waiting for the band. Chitchat in antique chairs and soon Solace vocalist Justin Goins rolled in, and was catching up since apparently he lived in this area of western, northern NJ, and he and Tareila went back and forth about the towns and local high schools, who was metal and who was punk, and so on. Like you do.
Guitarist Justin Daniels arrived a short time later, followed by Tommy Southard, who is the remaining founding member of the band, with his wife Jennifer. I’ve known this band for at least the last 20 years, obviously the newer members less, but I remain a fan nonetheless. I remember doing shows opening for them and being blown off the Brighton Bar or whatever stage it was at some sparsely attended shows, and so I’ll readily admit my bias, but I was excited to see the place and to hear the songs and the whole thing. I swear I kept the nerding out at Eric Rachel to a minimum.
I couldn’t help but feel sentimental about last time I was in the studio with Solace, which was Mad Oak in Boston in early 2010, as they were making A.D. (review here), which wound up being the end of an era as much as the beginning of one, but this was a different vibe. First of all, guitars were “done,” though Justin had ideas for more parts even as Goins was in the live room doubling prior-recorded tracks for “Wrath’s Object,” which is apparently upwards of 15 minutes long, digging into a hook with a characteristic impact of drums and twists of guitar. When Goins came back in the control room, took a hit off the bottle
of bourbon that Southard had apparently brought and took out his slippers, it was time to get down to business. That proved to indeed be how it went.
Solace’s double-guitar attack — Tommy and Justin are both lead players — has always been central, but Goins has been in this band for a decade by now, and he’s already got an album under his belt in 2019’s The Brink (review here), so I was looking forward to hearing him hit it. And well, he hit it. He, Justin, Tommy and Eric were all shooting ideas back and forth for the arrangement, lines about breaking hands and kissing feet as a solo rips behind, but the time he was doubling those lines, they were stuck in my head.
Talk turned to extending a verse, four lines instead of two, getting into the construction of it and where vocals, guitar, something, is needed. The nerd in me, knowing that this record will be finished and out by the time they’re hitting the road in Europe next year for Desertfest and those shows with Hermano, plus whatever else may come,
will appreciate having been here while those choices were made. The album review will suck, writing-wise, but sometimes that’s worth the tradeoff as well.
Goins got back to work after a couple minutes, hitting into that verse, Tommy and Justin shouting approval along the way. That writing partnership, Tommy/Justin, has evolved over the years, and their personalities are well suited to each other. Justin brought an acoustic and they both worked to actively resist adding parts to the song, but I guess some songs are like that. A joke my wife and I tell at Thanksgiving is “mashed potatoes can absorb infinite amounts of butter,” and this was kind of the same idea, but with riffs. Goins sang along a high part and they decided to throw that in instead of more guitar.
But vocals, unless you’re doing it live or you don’t give a shit what you sound like, or both, are an inherently nitpicky process, and part of the work one does as a singer is take in stride when four dudes in the next room
are telling you to redo parts directly into your headphones. There was, as well, lots of encouragement, and bourbon, which is how it should be.
The chorus was next, starting with lines around repetitions of the title-lyric, “Wrath’s object/Disaffected/Wrath’s object/Vivisected,” with Goins putting a lower register delivery under the highs. It was rough and apparently there was more of it than I’d heard, but it sure sounded like Solace to me, and not just for the rampant soloing. You’ll know the line, “Kiss the feet of a whore in the hate of a moment,” when you hear it. The timing on “Swept the dust from a killing floor,” held back just the tiniest bit, brought a smile to my face.
There were more punches, then a round of listening, a break while Eric Rachel was sorting whatever stems, more listening. Everything sounds killer in studio monitors, 
and this was unmixed, but it was easy to hear where it was headed; quite possibly at the end of the album.
“Malengine” was next, with an off-time intro into a mellower verse. As much as Goins was pushing out “Wrath’s Object,” that initial verse was comparatively restrained, which I’ll tell you is also the word Justin used to describe every part of the record without a guitar lead or solo on it. Fair. “Malengine,” which Goins noted is the most personal song on the record for him, built up from that quiet start, and he had very clearly showed up to work. Tommy dug the verse; more when it was doubled. There was some detailing, some lines using the room, a little further off mic, then the heavy part that ensues, the riff complex — 9/8 and 11/8, so I heard — but traceable in doom. The title, I learned, is Middle English, and the definition is what you think it would be, some kind of evil machination or deceit. I had glanced at the lyrics, but didn’t take a picture.
They went line by line, building it along the way and getting the takes down. 
Goins called a couple redos for lines around a punchy bassline, and Eric had a couple things as they went, but they were moving, hammering it out and doubling along the way; get it done and keep going. The work of it. It was starting to get dark, but, well, it was the solstice, so it would be. There were more highs, some left for next session. Forward momentum. When Goins was dragging, Tommy talked some shit, and that worked. “I am here on the scaffold/For thirty pieces of silver sold.” He nailed it once, then nailed it again. Justin said he would buy it. They were rolling.
A couple harmonies layered in, Tommy calling approvals over the control room mic. The song has a riding groove, even with those turns where the bass is punching through (the guitar is right there as well, of course; it’s unmixed), and Goins got into it, which was cool to see. There were lines 
where he dubbed in a talkbox on a couple spoken lines on the ends of verses, and then he went another section of the song, post-chorus solo section, a sudden pivot to brighter sounding leads, a layer of acoustic guitar worked in there as well, and a softer delivery for the lyric, “A neck breaks like a piece of chalk…” that was well received. The song jumps back and forth, “heavy part” to “pretty part,” so they jumped to do the latter and listened back, back in to double, going quick but not uncarefully through.
More harmonies, some just to get ideas down, and another few lines closer to the end of the song, before a big drum fill into the solo part. It was after 6:30 by then for a session that was slated till eight, but Goins was holding up more than admirably, considering he’d been singing at that point for most of the prior six hours. Then he was done and I got to hear the whole thing front-to-back, and the changes and that back and forth made a whole lot more sense. The solos fed into
the intensity, and after, they brought it back to the chorus, and it was raw, with a little flourish from Goins at the end, again well received. Some laughs about a live solo track that was still in where it wouldn’t ultimately be. Some more noodling on the acoustic from Justin, working ideas through even though guitars were, as they said on socials, “abandoned.”
Goins put some tambourine on the chorus of “Malengine,” and they tried it on the pretty part, but nixed it. He came back in the control room and sat, then decided to wrap with some more harmonies on “Spiral Will,” which I hadn’t heard yet. They didn’t have it along, so went to a song called “Tip of the Spear,” and guess what, I hadn’t heard that either. They were going back and forth about the title. It was a rocker, with a different look in the early verses, and the discussion was what to do to coincide with the solo. That ended up being a lower-register, grungey kind of melody that sit well over the tumult of guitar. Justin and Tommy lost their shit when he doubled it, and rightly so. A couple punches in and out. Done. A last harmony, 
which Goins nailed, was a gorgeous way to end the session.
There was another song, called “Fading Failing Ruin,” that I was hoping to hear since Tommy had mentioned he wrote the root of the riff when he was 14. Justin had it on his phone, so they hooked it up through the board and it was nodder. I nodded accordingly, in a manner I anticipate spending much of next year doing. Then I got to hear “Ridden’ — sweet melodic shout over midtempo strut — which had also been talked about. It was done, as opposed to “Fading Falling Ruin,” which was instrumental, and as Jeff pointed out, every song was working with a different vibe. I can’t wait to get to know the rest of it. They’ll be back in to finish more — the record isn’t done, but clearly it’s getting there; “Wrath’s Object ” was all the way done today, and “Tip of the Spear,” or whatever it will be called (“Fettered to a Stone” is in 
consideration) — so progress is being made, and I felt fortunate to be in the room even for part of it.
In addition to the Spring jaunt in Europe and the impending full-length, Solace are already booked for Ripplefest Texas and the returning Emissions From the Monolith next Fall, and one can only imagine there will be dates between, so 2026 is going to be busy. I’m glad, and if they get a fraction of their due, so much the better, but you have to understand, Solace are going to keep going anyway. It’s not a band that exists by happenstance. These guys need to make this noise. I can’t wait to hear the record, to know the songs, and to see them live.
Thanks to Justin, Tommy, Goins, Jeff and Eric for having me out to Pussycat Club, which was a rad space with killer sound, and very, very definitely the barn I had been looking for. Thanks to The Patient Mrs. for the day and thanks to you for reading.
