ACCELERATION

Age of Silence debut album, Acceleration, is a lesson in how to do things a little differently as well as in how not to do them. As fellow reviewer UMUR points out, this band doesn't intend to sound anything like Dream Theater (an easy trap to fall into) but they do sound annoyingly similar to the band Winds, who admittedly share 4 of this quintets number making that comparison even less surprising than the music.

Musicianship is unsurprisingely top notch here but its about all this band get right. Compositions are straight forward, predictably and distinctly cold. There's little here to suggest the band was even aiming for an emotional connection with the listener, something I feel is an integral requirement for music to excel. A series of uninspired melodies leads to a feeling that your listening to 9 identical songs and has a resulting effect of being totally unmemorable, I've listened to this album about 10 times and yet only an hour after playing it I will have no recollection of any of the melodies or rhythms employed here. My biggest problem, though, is with the vocalist. I'm not normally one to be bothered too much by less than stellar vocals but Lars Lazare Nedland has a truly horrible voice, its flat, dull and grating. The biggest surprise on this album is that the production doesn't hold up to much either. Its not that its hugely substandard but I just feel the kick drum sounds too soft with a distinct lack of punch and that the guitar solos come across sounding a bit muddy.

So, why not a 1 star rating? Well, the album does have a few saving graces to it. I mentioned earlier that I have the feeling that I'm listening to 9 identical songs, but the tenth song The Green Office and the Dark Desk Draw is definitely different to the rest with a sound and feel that reminds me of Arcturus second album, La Masquerade Infernal, and is without doubt the best song on here. Also, Andy Winter gives an excellent performance on keyboards providing an excellent counterpoint to the guitars, its just a shame that he couldn't save the album on his own. In the end I have to ask why though? The similarities to Winds are so strong that I feel it makes the point of this project rather redundant so I say get Winds Prominence and Demise instead, a much better buy.