TRACKLISTING

 

SIDE KILL
1.-Death - Pierce Me
2.-Sterile Nails And Thunderbowels
3.-Taklamarkan
SIDE YOURSELF
4.-The Slow Kill In The Snow
5.-I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow
6.-Feeble Are You - Sons Of Sion

 

   There are many bands that emulated Burzum and not all of them contributed enough to be called original. Burzum itself explored too many fertile ground without exploiting it carefully. Entities like Judas Iscariot or Wigrid pay tribute evidently, with varied success. But Silencer is not only a Burzum clone. This band is a singular piece of a finding. While they in some ways are part Burzum, there are many parts that doesn't fit the pattern. It's hard for me to describe the feeling when one hears this album. Insanity comes close, like a subtle enviroment, a slight strangeness. Firstly, one should mention the voice. If you have heard Wigrid, you will get more or less an idea. If not, you might call it sharp. Or a shrill one. But not only is noisily a scream, it's a varied voice that is at least sickening. Growls, coughing and other nauseating noises accompany the sharpness. The production goes very cleanly, so every sound is unmistakable. Other thing that is a trademark in Silencer is the combination that fuses a varied showcase of brutality and melody, but not your every day melodic voice or riff, but strange piano parts, some uncommon solos. You see, the eclectic sound is always going along the sick voice, so the mix is very interesting. Sometimes, Silencer plays a melodic tune, that is true, and you may be tempted to call Gothic this melodic influence, but only if you have been fooled by the intro of "Taklamarkan" or "Death - Pierce Me" This unsettling parts become even more so when the Black screaming and riffing start. The melodic parts are there only to convert this seemingly peaceful enviroment into a piercing nightmare. But like I've said, it's not brutality Silencer show, it is a more like a raining set of drumblasts and melodic but weird guitar riffs, guitar work that can reach a vicious level.

 

   Eclectic is what Black Metal has come to lately; and sometimes, it survives strongly. Bands like Emperor showed that BM could go beyond a horrible production, even though they strayed too much. But then again, bands like Nokturnal Mortum, Graveland, Nargaroth, among others, show how can a band stray from the original primitive path into new ones.

 

   Silencer took a place inside the field . Burzum is what inspired Wigrid or Judas Iscariot. Silencer lacks that excess of influence, breeding new sounds never heard before. As you see, in the field of originality, Silencer scored a ten out of ten. The merit is, the band still carry the genre's trademark.

 

   Anyhow, the CD is jewel by itself. Although it does not carry an exasperating production, this album proves that Black Metal is dead, but its legacy lives through the scattered sons.

 

92 OUT OF 100