Silent Planet

The Night God Slept

Written by: MBC on 26/12/2014 16:57:19

About a year ago LA-based sextet Silent Planet released their second EP “Lastsleep (1944-46)”, which was an excellently brutal and beautiful serving of progressive metalcore. Silent Planet had planned that “Lastsleep (1944-46)” would be a precursor to the following full length, which would then carry on the themes established on the EP. It contained five tracks, three of which are now featured again on the band’s new incredible album “The Night God Slept” which came out last month on Solid State Records and, according to yours truly, is one of the best albums to come out this year.

On “Lastsleep (1944-46)” Silent Planet established an emotional narrative seen from a strong, feminist-Christian perspective during World War II, in which the hardship and continuing faith and belief in love of three women in different parts of the world was the focus. In addition to this, the full length deals with other emotionally heavy themes such as religious and indigenous genocide and features several references to scripture as well as to works of authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Friedrich Nietzsche. Vocalist Garrett Russell delivers a crushingly passionate and aggressive performance in his ferocious, yet sorrowful mid-to-high pitched scream that beautifully complements the at times shredding and frenetic, at times melancholic and hauntingly beautiful guitars. Russell is assisted by bassist Thomas Freckleton who provides excellent clean vocals throughout the album that never become annoying or feel contrived. On the contrary, they compliment Russell’s scream perfectly. The lyrics are intricate, painful and exceptionally well written and absolutely fit the dark and mournful atmosphere established musically by the band.

The three tracks from the EP that have been included on this new full length are “Tiny Hands (Au Revoir)”, “Darkstrand (Hibakusha)” and “Wasteland” which also happen to be some of the best songs on the album. One can question though if it really was necessary to repackage these songs, as they are the same as they were then. On the other hand, it is a smart move from the band, since these are three incredibly strong songs that now will receive a bigger audience through the backing of a powerful label like Solid State. Listening through the album as a whole, it makes perfect sense to include them, and “The Night God Slept” is an amazing collection of songs that all differ from each other while flowing perfectly together at the same time creating a stunning musical work of art. Other album highlights include “Native Blood” which has been released as a single and “Firstwake” that features a short, but great guest vocal performance by Being As An Ocean front man Joel Quartuccio.

Silent Planet have created a dark and captivating musical universe that is fully their own, with an album that blends together technical and melodic metal and hardcore while keeping these in perfect balance. The band manages to create music that will instantly impact and impress, while having enough depth for multiple returns and the discovery of more details. “The Night God Slept” is one of the must-haves of 2014 and solidifies Silent Planet’s position as innovators and future leaders of metalcore.

9

Download: XX (City Grave), Native Blood, Tiny Hands (Au Revoir), Firstwake, Darkstrand (Hibakusha), Wasteland
For the fans of: UnderOath, Oh Sleeper, Architects, Mouth Of The South, The Overseer
Listen: Facebook

Release date 10.11.2014
Solid State

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