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Pretty
impressive debut by this young Spanish sextet. I am especially
in awe at the incredible skills of drummer Javi. And I mean the
guy starts off sort of following the band with their standard
take on technical melodic death metal and then somehow,
somewhere gains enough confidence to take off on his own. To put
it into perspective and to get out of the Javi subject for a
second, Sound of Silence remind me a great deal of Black Dahlia
Murder, and truly these sons of the motherland are every bit as
good and brutal. Too bad then that La Casa de los Lamentos
(House of Sorrows) sort of starts in generic mode; “Nunca
Sere Feliz” (“I’ll Never Be Happy”), and “Presa de la
Desconfianza” (“Victim of Distrust”) are all dexterous and to a
point jaw dropping demonstrations on how to play fast riffs, how
to mix and match deep growls and throaty ripping vocals and
still keep it together modern death metal style. But they are
all also tracks that to the gross-eared fan could be easily
passed as new Black Dahlia Murder material. It’s that good, but
simply, by adhering so much to this style Sound of Silence loses
in the identity department. It really is up to them to find some sort of
niche within the sub genre they have decided to dwell on. All
doubts put to rest; they got the skills and the talent.
But fucking
Javi man, the dude absolutely destroys his kit in every single
track. During the first few songs he sounds a bit controlled,
like he is following the band, but is not until the second half
where he actually heads places on his own, providing a fine
touch and style that hasn’t been so gracious since Charlie
Benante got a haircut (the second minute of “Renacer” (“Reborn”)
for instance). Curiously enough, is also during the second half
of La Casa de los Lamentos that Sound of Silence gets
more fun; “Nuevas Cicatrices en el Cielo” (“New Scars in
Heaven”) is fine death metal, but switches back and forth
between syncopated double kick drum and guitars a la
Pantera and refined fast metal; twin lead guitars and all. Javi
of course, keeps it together, like the leader not the backbeat
and as a result this song clocking in at only three minutes and
thirty seconds manages to sound epic. Sound of Silence cram so
much in it manages to stand out on its own. The promotional
material makes mention of Sound of Silence’s math metal
influences; truly I couldn’t hear much of that here. One sure
option for finding their own sound could be the slicing and
pasting of differing melodies and tempos within a song. If they
can keep seven of those together like they do on “Nuevas
Cicatrices en el Cielo” we probably have an improved version of
the Black Dahlia Murder.
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