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THROUGH YOUR SILENCE: "The Zenith Distance"                   

band contact:

label contact:
 www.twilight-vertrieb.de  

Featuring guest vocals of Oddleif Stensland/Communic and Stefano Fiori/Graveworm

To  be melodic even at the cost of song structure.

The Italian menagerie collectively known as Through Your Silence falls beneath the scrutinizing eye of Metaldom once more with 'The Zenith Distance' on June 3rd 2011 ,  follow up to 2008's debut 'Whispers To the Void'. This full length released via their label Twilight features a total of 10 tracks and has a total play time of 38:01.

Firstly I have to say, I haven't had the chance to listen to this band's previous release for a thorough retrospective comparison but I think that this leaves me with an advantage of  being completely unbiased and free of prior expectations.  This review is consequently totally at face value.

The Broad mix of the record is done quite well and the production is of good quality.The symphonic orchestrations are the highlight. The Instrumental  tracks entitled 'A Distant Reflection' and 'Their Portraits Forever' are most notable. They're wholly orchestral and don't feature vocals, guitars, or drums but they are impressively scored. I wouldn't compare them to the likes of Danny Elfman but they're of the same stock as Le'rue Delashay.

The guitar work in most sections is acceptable and , in my opinion , very similar to Becoming the Archetype, Born of Osiris, and Dark tranquillity. It’s not too dissimilar to many other Progressive and Deathcore bands, except in selective areas they exceed the tempos typical to such groups. Nonetheless, in essence they remain a ‘Core’ band in terms of guitar composition.

The vocals are the weakest attribute of the record among all it’s aspects. They don’t seem to blend well with the overall tone of the album. They rely heavily on the almost cliche exchange between screams and clean vocals. It’s as if this is to counterbalance the intended ‘brutality’ endured by the listener. I could not help but to make the observation that vocals seem to be inhaled at times. Wether this technique would be a negative mark is entirely up to the fans but in my opinion I feel that it is. The vocal tones created by such a method do not accent the music at all well.    

When I opted to review this release, I noticed that the band was being promoted as a Black / Death metal act.  Upon my first round of the album , it's clearly nothing of the sort. I believe it has become irrelevant to shove each and every band into a labelled box. However, I feel that this band is so starkly different from what could be  remotely termed Black or Death Metal , I'm now inclined to assert the difference. They are not Black Metal nor Death Metal in ideology or overall sound.  I do propose something more appropriate and that would be “Black Metalcore”.

Generally, I think that this release is a worthy effort of any band, but I could not find anything characteristic that sets them apart when I looked. The Band’s influences are often too obvious and are worn on the sleeve. I don’t believe they have formulated  their identity  yet which makes them indistinguishable among the piles of Band’s available to listeners. The symphonic elements might create something  of an appeal or niche for them, but they feel out of place among the sweeping vibe given off by the guitar work. They frequently seem like they’re straining to be melodic even at the cost of song structure by placing melodies where they obviously don’t fit.

I don’t think that they’re musically mature at this point and clearly haven’t established a distinctiveness. Despite all that, I do believe that they have potential to contribute to metal in some way once they find themselves.

written  by Gary Saul 

Gary Saul is reviewer for gryphonmetal.ch. based in the U.S.A.

23.06.2011

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