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An album worth picking up despite a few not-that-great tracks.-
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| Voices of Extreme: Break the Silence |
Hard Rock, Heavy Metal
Metalville Records
August 16th, 2011
- Damned - 3:42
- Tell Me What It Takes - 3:33
- Apocalypse - 3:30
- Break the Silence - 3:42
- Numb - 3:40
- Did it Again - 3:10
- Hollow - 3:37
- Made of Stone - 4:19
- Blown Away - 3:35
- Sorry - 3:34
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| Review Information |
Release length: 36:12
Review posted on August 27th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 8.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Hypocrite (2006) • Break the Silence (2011)
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| Review |
Voices of Extreme is based out of New York, and plays a mixture of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal to capture the more modern aggression with the early days of catchy Rock. The group wound up hitting the scene in 2006 with their self-released debut album Hypocrite, which actually met with some really strong praise throughout the Rock and Metal communities. Now, roughly five years later, the band has signed a deal with Metalville Records, and release their highly anticipated follow-up full-length, Break the Silence. Does this underground success have what it takes to break out of the shadows and find a place with the more established bands of their style?
Honestly, Break the Silence is a huge surprise. The music sounds professional, and the audio quality is as superb. Voices of Extreme bring a great deal of songs here that have some real passion behind them, or even just really catchy music that will have your head bouncing along from the start. First of all the audio is pretty loud. The guitars are heavy when they need to be, and the bass can be felt in the mix and even becomes pretty important during some tracks like the bass-heavy "Apocalypse". Both of these also lend a good deal of white noise in distortion the compliments the atmosphere well. The drums are also loud in the mix, but not to the point that everything is overpowered, with a more natural sounding bass kick and snare sound. But while this really helps with some of the heavier tracks, it does still add that extra edge to the lighter, catchier Rock tracks, like "Damned", which really starts off the album superbly with an infectious song that showcases the talent of the group, and how well the higher, energetic clean vocals work to capture that early Rock sound among a rather emotional and atmospheric musical tapestry while working with the softer, lower clean vocals. "Damned" immediately grabs the listener with it's well executed Rock ideas and dirty, heavy sound, setting the listener up for the madness and variety that is to come on the album.
After "Damned", you'll be ready for pretty much anything this album throws your way, and that's about what the band has in store for you. Not only does this release have some tracks clearly geared more towards the Metal side of things, such as the aforementioned "Apocalypse" and "Numb", the latter of the two sadly not really being the greatest of songs on here largely due to it's heavier focus on bass that leaves a bit of an empty feeling to the audio, but you even get brushes of other styles like a little Blues which can be found in the more acoustic driven "Tell Me What it Takes". This track is geared more towards a ballad foundation, and even has a little extra classical input in the instruments to really capture a sad and somber song that will jerk on the listener's emotions and leave a lasting impact that will have you coming back for more. These songs all leave similar strong lasting impressions once they're done, and right away you'll want to revisit them all up to the aforementioned "Numb". Unfortunately, after this track, it becomes hit or miss.
The last half of Break the Silence is not like an album that is clogged with filler, but some of the songs just aren't as catchy or enjoyable, though still solid efforts. "Did it Again" is a really catchy Rock song with the Metal edge that really takes things back to "Damned", but with a little more melody and attitude behind it. "Made of Stone" is another stronger, slower paced ballad track that has an atmosphere that seems to bridge more into a Gothic Rock sound similar to bands like Entwine, and the higher clean singing performed in a more soothing manner with plenty of emotion behind it really just makes it more powerful. But the rest of the material is just not as solid. "Sorry" does a good job at closing up the album, and it's a good track for what it is, but it just doesn't really seem to have the same energy as the more stand out tracks of the release, nor does it have any real emotional drive to it which, given the lyrical content, is quite surprising.
While Break the Silence does have some songs on here that are not the most amazing or jaw-droppingly phenomenal, there's so many great songs on here around the start of the album that they honestly justify spending the money to have them in your collection. "Damned" and "Tell Me What it Takes" are fantastic songs that make you want to just hit repeat on them alone, and many others that follow are catchy, heavy, and/or emotionally driven to create an experience you won't soon forget. The band's mixture of Rock and Metal concepts is top notch, and using a thickier, bass-heavy production quality really gives the album that extra edge it needs. If you like the classic Rock meets Metal sound, then Break the Silence becomes a release you need to check out when you get the chance.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Metalville Records
via Freeman Promotions.
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