KINETIC

This is the second effort from Swedish five piece formation Vilent Silence. I am not familiar with their fist one but listening to Kinetic I have to say that they are an interesting new progrock band. Their music often sounds like an encounter of electronic music (keyboards), symphonic rock (structure of the songs) and progressive metal (dynamic and powerful rhythm-section). The two keyboard players are omnipresent, they colour the compositions lush and tasteful with modern and varied sounds. Highlight is the long track Quiet Stalker (at about 18 minutes) featuring many shifting moods and spectacular keyboard sounds. Only the vocals sometimes sound a bit dull. To me Violent Silence is a fresh and promising band, perhaps the addition of a guitarplayer will give the music more variety, some tracks tend to sound a bit similar. But in general this CD has lots of strong musical ideas.

One record to check.

Check it out, man. Even if you don't dig the reviews, be sure to at least listen to one song (Kinetic would be a good gauge) in case you really like it. Because if you do, you'll probably think you've discovered something unique and exotic.

This is nothing like I possess in my collection. Just like Carptree a few months ago, Sweden once again gives us tremendous innovation with Violent Silence. This band has a sound that's 100% fresh. Althought the band chemistry has been used in bands like Fürhs Shick and Fröling (2 keyboardists), Emerson Lake and Palmer, Triumvirat or Trace, this has nothing to do with them! Honestly, maybe a blend of the 'Vespertine' album by Björk and Boards of Canada could give you an idea. To me, this is 2005's freshest pick!

Yep, not one inch of guitar. 2 keyboardists and a drummer is enough to create a whole new sound as well as a new world. Sometimes you're caught in a harsh snow storm, the other it's gazing at snowflakes slowly falling down a cloudy day. The atmosphere is easy to taste, but I cannot use another word but 'freezing' to describe a theme of winter. Many times the keys reminds me of video games tunes (especially Mega Man series) I used to like, maybe the xylophone and vintage sounds are in for something? A real sense of nostalgia is emerging, I hope you'll catch it too.

This is not electronic prog per se, but it comes close in terms of feeling. Amateurs of Mogwai, Tortoise or Boards of Canada in the legendary album 'Music has the Right to Children'. Some sites thought this is hard to get into, I frankly have to say that to me, this has benn a natural move; jumping from symphonic to electronica.

Different, moody and exquisite.

An interesting band from Sweden who have a fairly unique sound. That's in part to the fact they have no guitarist and two keyboardists. The vocalist has a modern sound to his singing which i'm not really a fan of. I do like how melancholic this album is, I just wish there was some of that Lifeson style ("Permanent Waves") guitar instead of just keyboards. Still this is a pretty good album that has been getting very good reviews.

"Morning Star" opens with soft sounds as reserved vocals join in. Synths and keyboards only end it in a melancholic manner. "Kinetic" is where we get some energy with drums and synths leading. Vocals a minute in. I like the instrumental section 3 1/2 minutes in. Vocals are back a minute later. A calm after 5 minutes to end it again in a melancholic way. "Torrential Rains" opens with synths before the heaviness takes over followed by vocals. "Night Lights" is a short and sad soundscape with synths and organ.

"Sky Burial" features drums, keyboards and vocals. A laid back and at times dreamy tune. "Subzero" is one of the few tracks where I can hear the bass. Again synths, vocals and drums standout. "Quiet Stalker" is the epic at 18 minutes. It's dark and experimental early. I like it. Drums and vocals after a minute. Not a fan of this though. The instrumental section before 5 minutes is better and more intense. Vocals are back unfortunately. It's heavier after 9 minutes with drums and synths. "Homesick" is the short conclusion. Synths build slowly as soft vocals join in. Kind of cool.

It seems like the critics and fans love this album so take my 3 stars rating with a grain of salt. And why do I have such a hard time saying the band's name ?

Prog without guitar has been done many times but never quite like this. Crisp electronic synth patches shine like polished chrome, "playing off" one another in modern counterpoint. Although beautifully lush moments are not infrequent, the real surprise is how often this music powerfully flirts with the borderline of hard rock and even metal.

Without sequencing ahead of time, it would take more than 2 hands to perform this music live. Good thing they have 2 keyboardists in the band! Bass Guitar and a real drumkit successfully conspire to retain some measure of organic warmth.

One cautionary note: although the compositions vary, the "sound" never strays too far from a relatively focused timbral range. (Perhaps that is a plus for fans of "continuity!) With a combination of coloration and style as unique as this, I can't say I blame the band for staking this sonic territory as their own. I am left wondering, however, at what point, might this 'signature sound' impose boundaries upon their range of expression? That, however, is a question for future albums. For now, I simply cannot consider this as anything less than a major breakthrough for the sound of modern progressive rock.

Top notch album

Violent Silence is five piece band from Sweden with 2 albums released so far. The second release from 2005 named Kinetic is true gem in prog filed. Quite original in many parts, this band sounds fresh and inventive most of the time. I'm not aware of their first album, but this one is really great from start to finish. This is the type of prog without guitar and instead the keyboards has an important role here, but don't expect something a la ELP, no, this is diffrent and is very good and original. The music is powerfull, intresting and has plenty of memorable passages, specially in pieces like Torrential Rains or Kinetic, very strong musicianship. What is intresting on this release is that they incorporated in the eclectic sound some very strong electronic keyboards, that goes very well here in this context. Quiet Stalker is a 18 min long tune with some fantstic instrumental passages, nice moods and twists here, the 2 keybordist done a very nice job, really great. Kinetic is one of the albums that needs a far better recognition world wide because they worth it big time. Original and inventive are the words to discribe this little album very unknown. Well done guys. 4 stars easy and recommended.