There is a good chance that you may not have encountered In The Silence before but their self-released debut 2012 album obviously caught some attention as not only has it been picked up by Sensory but the band are also due to play ProgPower USA 2013. Although this comes under the progressive banner it is quite accessible and certainly not any of the mind bending, head screwing stuff that sits on the fringes of the genre; you don’t need to worry about eclectic time changes or baffling chord progressions here. In The Silence keep things simple with the emotions of dark and light doing the talking. In fact this is what I would describe as atmospheric doom a lot of the time, sweeping you up in its flow and packing plenty of depth into its eight numbers.
In my opinion they start off the album with the best of these as ‘Ever Closer’ packs one hefty punch. Meandering guitars pave the way for the harmonic clean vocals of Josh Burke and all of a sudden the hefty weight of the instrumentation unexpectedly hones in, this is heavy, you could even head-bang to it. The chorus is the killer part though and could have the scope to have a stadium singing along, hitting way above its weight. I am reminded a bit by latter day Anathema on some of the music, Katatonia for the heavy riffing and our own The Prophecy who have the knack of pulling such fantastic heartfelt soaring choruses out the bag. Once you hear this song though, you will not be shaking it off in a hurry and if the whole album was as powerful as this number we would be looking at top marks. As is often the case they have set themselves a monumental task here and although the rest of the album is damn good it never quite overpowers like this first number
That aside the dark atmosphere here and the excellent production ensure you get the most out of this 45 minute album. ‘Seventeen Shades’ mixes slow-burning parts that border on being a ballad to sudden powerful surges of muscular build-up with the song flying off and carrying you with it, giving you a bouncy old ride. I am reminded a bit of songs like ‘Fragile’ by Anathema here, this has that sort of spark about it and even gets you playing air guitar as it flows forth, not a bad thing at all. Songs like ‘Beneath These Falling Leaves’ complete with what sounds like a spot of violin, have a very autumnal feel about them and the fragile start sparkles like frost and you expect to be able to see your own breath as you breathe in and out listening to it. It may take its time but suddenly the song as do most of them takes off dashing through the woods with some post-rock chords and jagged flailing leads that leave you pretty breathless. Endless Sea keeps the song at a surprisingly compact under 5 minute running time and this one again allows its melodic chorus to really win us over, it’s almost up there with that first number but not quite.
Considering this is a debut it is incredibly mature in every respect and it sounds as though the band have spent a lot of time getting the songs sounding just right. It’s a dog eat dog world out there and it is great to see that something this good has got the attention it deserves and hopefully A Fair Dream Gone Mad will find itself an appreciative audience. Last number is the Porcupine Tree-esque ‘Your Reward,’ whether the band have found theirs yet probably remains to be seen but by checking this lot out you will certainly have found yours.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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