Year : 1991 (Divebomb Records Deluxe Edition 2022)
Style : Thrash Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 165 mb
Bio:
Cult northern Virginia thrashers SILENCE got their start under the name of Necrosis circa 1987, releasing a three-song demo the following year. Minor lineup shifts found guitarists Sonny Mayo and Louie Denslow with vocalist Ben Gaither eventually joined by Jason Robinson on bass and John Mayes behind the kit, resurfacing as SILENCE in 1990 with the six-song Intense Thrash Metal demo. Recorded by Steve Carr (Government Issue, Indestroy, etc.) at Hit and Run Studios, said material would be slightly tweaked and re-released later in the year as Echoes of Damnation—alongside a more mature visual aesthetic representative of the quality of the band's output.The following year, SILENCE self-released their long-awaited debut album, Vision, on CD and cassette—offering an hour's worth of taut, crunchy East Coast thrash metal with scorching leads. The group continued performing live and forging friendships with other locals such as Chemikill, Skeleton, and future legends Deceased; as well as opening for national headliners like Scatterbrain, Flotsam and Jetsam, and a coveted slot ahead of Pantera promoting Cowboys From Hell in late-1990.Around 1992, SILENCE recorded three final songs with Alex Perialas (Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Overkill, etc.) and Wrathchild America bassist/vocalist Brad Divens at Pyramid Sound Studios. Unfortunately, few outside the band ever got to hear the material, as the seams were starting to come unglued. Mayo had been jamming with M.F. Pitbulls—a side project of Wrathchild America drummer Shannon Larkin—and general tensions amongst the members of SILENCE ultimately closed the door on future opportunities.
Album:
Over 30 years later, the original pressing of Vision has become quite collectible—even falling victim to the bootleg market—so Divebomb Records is excited to finally present this official expanded edition. Adding to the album the sought-after Pyramid Sound recordings, the 12-song disc has been fully remastered by Jamie King Audio. The CD will be housed alongside a 20-page booklet including photos, lyrics, and a new interview with SILENCE conducted in May of 2022. For the fans, by the fans! This outfit couldn’t have chosen their moniker any more ironically as there’s nothing silent about their approach to the good old thrash, and the latter wouldn’t have attracted a very large crowd worshipping at their altar. The music, however, is something really worth hearing by all walks of thrash fans. The guys started their career as Necrosis, but after just one demo (no idea about the style on that one) in 1988 they quickly regrouped under the new name, ready to be loyal advocates to the “sound of silence”, and to produce numerous covers of the famed Art & Garfunkel cover of the same title, one every three tracks on the album reviewed here…Kidding of course, absolutely nothing of the kind, and the title of their demo greatly makes up for the quiet band name as this is literally intense thrash to the bone. All the seven pieces from it are featured here with two new ones added, this compilation hitting you like a steam-roller in the face, leaving you dazed and perhaps a bit confused, but all in a good way. Although it’s intensity the band focus on, there are quite a few more complex arrangements siding with works like Metallica’s “…And Justice for All” and Anthrax’s “Persistence of Time”, but when the band switch on the right gear they can mosh for minutes on end as there’s plenty of room for every tendency to develop with at least half the cuts easily going over the 6-min mark, these passages of aggression quite reminiscent of the ones from the works of Devastation and Demolition Hammer.The title-track is a most abrupt beginning the guys pressing the pedal to the max with a fountain of speedy blitzkrieg crescendos, the vocalist chasing the dynamic rifforamas with all the passion he can muster with forceful spat out lines along the lines of early James Hetfield, supported by his comrades on the curt shouty choruses. Said opener goes through several tempo changes also surviving a brief blast-beating “baptism”. “Echoes of Damnation” is more jarring and choppier, with more intricate configurations, but there’s enough headbanging bash covered to tire even the most dedicated fans out there who will listen in wonder to the atmospheric bass-driven intro of “Voice of the Pariah” which flows into a cool balladic etude the singer acquiring a pleasant more melodic timbre; all those respites are momentary, though, as the band switch onto full-speed ahead the alternations between the two sides (direct and more technical) vintage late-80’s Metallica.“Pitbull” justifies its title very well being a shorter moshing rager with dazzling lead implements, the band keeping it short and neat before “Living Hypocrisy” complicates the environment with choppier rhythms and mazey galloping rifforamas; dizzying changes of pace await the fan who will also totally savour the excellent melodic lead guitar work again. “Path of Uncertainty” follows a fairly “certain” path, to be honest, one that sticks to more conventional structures the aggressive mosh prevalent for a large part of these exhausting 7.5-min which are superseded by two shorter numbers, “Death by Womba”, a ripping no-fooling-around headacher, and “Dark Tide Rising”, a more elaborate, less predictable shredder still built around fast-paced blitzkrieg riffage. All roads inevitably lead to “Necromantic”, a larger-than-life progressive 10.5 opus with myriad moods and tempos nearly reaching the labyrinthine peculiarities of Dark Angel’s “Time Does Not Heal” with the incessant supply of dynamic overlapping rhythms, the cannonade split by a nice semi-balladic interlude.That was some “silent” showing for sure, nearly an hour of engaging, also quite intense thrashing the band accumulating near death metal-like intensity on the more brutal “skirmishes”, a steam-roller that should please both the vigorous and the thinking side of the audience. Well, one can only generate as much from a most "untalkative" bunch like this one here, and once presenting their vision to the world in a more formal format, the band were no more… back to the silence from whence it all came.
Line-Up:
Ben Gaither - Vocals - See also: ex-Necrosis
Jason Robinson - Bass - See also: ex-Necrosis
Sonny Mayo - Guitars - See also: ex-Necrosis, ex-Amen, ex-Hed PE, ex-M.F. Pitbulls, ex-Sevendust, ex-Snot
Louie Denslow - Guitars - See also: ex-Necrosis
John Mayes - Drums
Tracklist:
01. Vision 06:36
02. Echoes of Damnation 05:02
03. Voice of the Pariah 06:17
04. Pitbull 04:29
05. Living Hypocrisy 07:56
06. Path of Uncertainty 07:31
07. Death by Womba 03:07
08. Dark Tide Rising 04:58
09. Necromantic 10:16
10. One Race 05:02 (Bonus Track)
11. Thanatos 04:41 (Bonus Track)
12. Principle Aggression 04:12 (Bonus Track)
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