Silverstein

Discovering The Waterfront

Written by: PP on 05/08/2005 01:34:38

Silverstein has used two full years to tour in support of their 2003 debut album "When Broken Is Easily Fixed". The wait is finally over, as their highly anticipated sophomore album "Discovering The Waterfront" is arriving in stores in a matter of days. It starts out great with the strong, fast paced opener "Your Sword Vs. My Dagger" with powerful guitar intro closely followed by alternating screamo/clean lines. If you're familiar with their old album, you immediately notice that the sound is a lote brighter, more produced and more polished - maybe too polished - in comparison to the raw, soared screams of older songs like "Smashed Into Pieces".

That's the one thing that bothers me on this album. What I really liked about Silverstein's debut were the mindblowing lo-fi screams at the right times. The most intensely emotional lyrics were screamed out loudly with passion, and let it be no secret that it's something I enjoy in emo. And while that's present at tracks like the opener, "My Heroine" and "Smile In Your Sleep" (which is possibly the best song the band has written to date), there are just too many tracks where the screaming is missing either completely or it is lacking in quantity. They seem to be aiming more towards The Early November vocals than at the potential Alexisonfire style.

Even though tracks such as the title track, "Call It Karma", and "The Ides Of March" lack on the screaming department, they are still good songs both melodically and instrumentally. But they fail to leave as lasting memory as "Always And Never" or "Your Sword Vs. My Dagger" do with their mesmerizing screams that will haunt the nights of younger listeners for weeks.

"Already Dead"'s chorus is probably the catchiest one on the album after "Smile In Your Sleep". Don't hang me if I'm wrong, but i'm almost certain i've heard a similar sample in a popular 90s pop song before. It could be just me being paranoid, but if it's true at all, then Silverstein are approaching a dangerous form of musicianship - you hardly want to be known to lack creativity, being an emo band and all.

So what makes Silverstein's second album different from the thousands of other emo albums out there? Well, they're possibly the most melodic emo group out there who incorporates emotional hardcore screams into their sound. I just wish they had more of that instead of the rather high pitched clean singing. It's still a good followup for their debut, though. The artwork is amazing by the way, more of these.

7

Download: Always And Never, Smile In Your Sleep
For the fans of: Senses Fail, Saosin

Release date 16.08.2005
Victory Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.