Silencer - Death of Awe
The first time I heard Silencer, it reminded me of going to my first few metal shows. Those shows were loud, indecipherable and full of aggression. But I was so swept up in the adrenaline and the energy in the room that it didn’t matter too much who was on stage, as long as they were loud and fast. It could’ve been a shitty local band with some pseudo-medical, genital related name like “Vaginitus” or “Penile Immolation” and I wouldn’t have cared, simply because the experience was so exhilarating.
But as you go to more shows, the novelty begins to wear and you start to look for flaws, like how you might notice protruding nose hairs on your girlfriend when all you used to see were her tits.
When I first heard Silencer, I was taken by their relentless riffing, catchy hooks and heartfelt aggression. Songs like Mnemodrone and The Harvest are the kind of things that makes you think back to your first show, in all its sweaty, drunken glory.
Unfortunately, the act grows stale pretty quickly. The speeding guitars and thrashing drums start to sound repetitive and—let’s face it— singer Chad Armstrong isn’t doing much to stoke the coals with his generic but serviceable screams.
That’s not to say this is a bad record, it’s just fairly typical death metal with a twist of thrash. I won’t skip it if it comes up on shuffle, but I’m not going to seek out a Silencer song.
Why you should listen to it
Catchy hooks and waves of guitars make Silencer a nice band to blast when you feel like being an asshole at red lights, solid musicianship and production.
Why you shouldn’t listen to it
Repetitive songs, that wave of guitars starts to feel like maple syrup after awhile, bland vocals adds some staleness and redundancy.
6.5/10