I’ve found that most debut albums fall into two categories. They are either a band that is still finding its feet and sound, and while a “good effort” nothing to particularly write home about, or they hit the ground running and you can quickly tell that while they are already sprinting, they have no intention of slowing down, ever. Thankfully, this falls album falls into the latter category. Formed 2 years ago and releasing a four track EP last year, vocalist Debora Conserva and guitarist Mitch Revy are joined by new drummer Marc Dyos and helped out by session bassist Richard Hunter for this LP.
Opening with a pleasant cello and piano melody which is joined by an infectious bass groove “Merging Infinity” carries on building until Debora’s powerful roar has the guitars throw themselves into the mix and Marc adds the odd blast beat, which he has probably missed doing since his days in Descent.
The first single from the album, with accompanying video is “A Toxic Lie”, which is littered with blasting and some manic footwork to go along with the gut-wrenching screams and low growls as the guitar rapidly shreds through its riffs with ease.
“Whispers of Dissonance” has some remarkably interesting timing signatures and various tempo changes that add to the discordant feel of the song, while Sophie Dorman’s clean vocals lend themselves perfectly to the almost acoustic bridge.
Keeping things interesting is “Blind Widow”, where the bass carries the melody as the guitars meanders off into lengthy sustains, harmonics and numerous bends.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that “Psychopathy” would be an insanely fast track, but they manage to hold back and let it build up with pent up aggression and rage as the slow vocal cadence rolls over the triplets of the guitars and drums.
A popping bass takes into “Bury My Name” where Debora manages to hold a lengthy scream that would have a lesser vocalist gasping for breath, before growling us towards the rather sedate outro and opening “Harmony of Solitude” with another long roar then varying her vocals from deep growls to black metal rasp before being joined by Sophie’s vibrato.
Mitch’s guitars are punctuated by Richard’s bass and the rolling drum patterns as “Dysmorphia” winds us towards the end of the album.
A beautiful change of pace is employed for the final and title track “When Life Falls Silent”, which includes the exquisite vocals of Sophie (from Marc’s other band Pythia) to complement Debora’s acerbic vocals when the pace changes back to its angry default.
I found this to be an excellent album filled with enough aggression to justify the death vocals, and enough melody to stop it from being another mundane extreme metal album. Looking forward to seeing this lot live, whenever that becomes a reality again.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
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