Review by Rebecca Clark
The world breaks us, people abandon us, systems fail us, faith disappoints us, yet the only way out is through. At its core, that is what Soen’s new album Reliance is about.
It peels back the layers of what it means to be human and examines the struggle of balancing what we want from life, from our relationships, and from ourselves. We face the question of what we believe spiritually, while also living within the heightened political reality many countries are operating under. It’s a multi-layered experience, because being human is multi-layered.
Soen’s Reliance, released January 16, 2026, feels like what it’s like to be fully awake to the world and simultaneously awakening from the inside. This album is full of heart, emotion, self-reflection, and shadow work. It captures what it feels like when you’re truly “going through it,” not by wallowing in pain, but by questioning everything around you and within you, learning and transforming at rock bottom. There’s a chrysalis-like quality to this record, as if we are witnesses to someone stepping into isolation to sort themselves out, only to emerge altered.
The rawest part of Reliance is that once you “wake up,” you can’t unsee or unfeel. That shift, that internal realignment, is what makes this album so rich, heavy, and emotionally charged. It’s filled with anguish but also filled with hope. It’s not an album written from a defeated place, but from a transformative one.
The political pieces of this record express what it’s like to be affected by decisions that are not our own. But instead of screaming, it observes. It comments. It dissects.
A recurring theme throughout the album is indifference, not only as apathy, but as a psychological and societal defense mechanism. It even becomes a track title. Indifference can be a survival tool, but when it calcifies into apathy, it becomes dangerous. The word shows up across the album:
- “Primal” – “Turn us indifferent to atrocity.”
- “Discordia” – “Indifference hinders evolving.”
- “Axis” – “Break out from indifference / and see that ghost isn’t who you are.”
- “Indifferent” – “How does someone become so cold and indifferent?”
Track Highlights:
“Primal”
“Primal” the first single off this record hits hard, both musically and thematically. The guitars are heavy, mirroring the chaos of the world. The lyrics explore confinement, apathy, corruption, and a society that thrives on division. Yet beneath the aggression is defiance: a call to break free from hollow systems, reclaim your mind, and fight the war within yourself. It’s heavy, brave, and unapologetically awake, its a track that forces you to confront the world and yourself at the same time.
These lyrics pack a punch and call out what is happening:
“Corruption and offense
They’re parasites dependent on the working class
They build their thrones on our broken backs
And feed us the remaining scraps
Leaving behind what is hollow
We are breaking every chain
They build their thrones on our broken backs”
“Axis”
“Axis” touches on both psychological awakening and political awareness. The line “Red or blue they’re all the same / pointing their fingers on others to blame” calls out how both sides avoid accountability. The song itself feels like being knocked off your axis, disoriented, overwhelmed, until that blistering guitar solo hits and everything snaps back into alignment. The music is extremely heavy, and the structure itself mirrors the process of losing control, gathering yourself, and finding your axis again.
“Indifferent”
“Indifferent” is a heart-wrenching reflection on the pain of being discarded by someone. You can feel the ache in the vocals, the piano, and the stripped-down production. The lyrics dig into what it feels like when someone moves on from you as if flipping a switch, while you’re left in the ashes trying to understand what went wrong.
The aftermath of being discarded is a dark, disorienting headspace, hard to navigate, confusing, and isolating, and the line “I need to find a way / Out of this sinister maze” makes that reality hit home. It’s one of the most emotionally piercing tracks on the record, sad, reflective, and brutally human.
These lyrics are especially haunting:
How does someone become so heartless,
Ripping into my chest?
How does someone become so cold and Indifferent?”
“Discordia”
“Discordia” feels linked to “Indifferent.” Where “Indifferent” is about the discard, “Discordia” is about the walls built afterward. It’s that stage of healing where you withdraw, reflect, and try to cultivate indifference as a shield. It’s chrysalis energy, isolating yourself, doing shadow work, and trying to figure out who you are after heartbreak. Grieving the person, the future, and the version of yourself that existed before the loss.
It contains some of my favorite lyrics from the album:
“All purpose fades without a hand to hold
Indifference hinders evolving
A mirror to the void
Reflecting questions without answers
I dare to lose you but not to be whole
That’s the lesson that I learned
Letting my hopes unfold”
It’s an internal war between wanting to be whole but not wanting to be vulnerable again.
“Huntress”
Musically melodic and beautifully constructed, “Huntress” centers on shadow work and self-sovereignty. It challenges the urge to hand ourselves over to a hero, emotionally, spiritually, or ideologically. Yes, people and faith can be guiding lights, but ultimately, we have to pick ourselves up from the floor. Pain isn’t something to outsource. It’s something to walk through.
Lines like “I don’t need another hero carrying me through my life” and “And the shadow inside of me will never set me free” acknowledge that freedom comes not from being saved, but from facing the storm.
This song is not anti-God, it’s anti-delegation of pain. Pain shapes us. If we outsource it to religion, partners, or ideology, we lose the growth it offers.
“Draconian”
Where “Huntress” says “no one is coming to save me,” “Draconian” reaches outward, asking for help, not escape. It confronts salvation as conditional and longs for connection with the divine, but with accountability. It doesn’t beg God to erase suffering but asks for the strength to carry it.
While many spiritual songs lean toward surrender and relief, “Draconian” sits in shame, remorse, and the desire for redemption. It isn’t about handing off responsibility; it’s about not wanting to face the darkness alone.
Reliance feels like shadow work set to music, confronting corruption, abandonment, faith, identity, and transformation until something real emerges. It is aware, it is awake, and it refuses to numb itself. It acknowledges despair without drowning in it, and it reaches for hope without denying how hard it is to get there.
It’s a record for anyone who has been cracked open by life and is trying to rebuild with intention instead of illusion.
RelianceTrack Listing:
- Primal
- Mercenary
- Discordia
- Axis
- Huntress
- Unbound
- Indifferent
- Drifter
- Draconian
- Vellichor
Purchase Reliance HERE
Stream on Spotify: