Silverstein "When Broken is Easily Fixed" CD
[Victory]
Here's another metalcore/emo band from Victory (this time from Canada) that fuses caustic screaming with nice singing and vocal harmonies, aggressive metalcore riffing with poppy and melodic chord progressions, etc. It's nothing new, but I definitely think the songwriting here is a lot better than most of this stuff. It's catchy and memorable with good dynamics and a mix of styles that's not always so derivative. I like the singing vocals a lot more than the screaming, regardless of whether or not the riffing is aggressive or laidback and melodic, and at times they even throw in some violin - which actually works incredibly well in tracks like "Giving Up". The title track definitely shows the band most effectively blending metal influences with poppy hooks and whatnot. There's a lot of rhythmic chunk in there, as well as some solid dual guitar harmony lines and such. Not too shabby. The recording is well done but needs a bit of smoothing over. I could stand for it to be brighter, with more crunch on the guitars, a tighter mix so the vocals wouldn't feel separated, etc. The drums, clean guitars, and violin sound fine, though I can't make out enough of the bass tone to make a call there. So I'd remedy that as well. I like the colors and style of the artwork on this one, but the subject matter (robots pulling out their mechanical hearts, exploding, looking distressed, etc.) is sort of silly and doesn't represent the music well at all. Looking at this thing you'd never expect it to sound as good as it does. I would've just stuck with the painted background textures and left the robots out of it, but whatever. As far as the content, the songs are personal and the approach generic ("I'll slit my throat with the knife I pulled out of my spine."), but I don't mind because these are just good songs. With more vocal harmonies and a punchier recording these guys could really hit me. Regardless I'd wager that they'll get pretty big anyway. Tracks like "Hear Me Out" have "minor radio hit" written all over them, so I'm sure these cats will be all over the place like their labelmates Taking Back Sunday pretty soon. I like this. I've been listening to it somewhat regularly ever since it hit my mailbox, so... if this kind of stuff doesn't make you want to puke this is one of those releases worth looking into. Good work. (7/10)
Running time - 38:30, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Giving Up, Hear Me Out, When Broken is Easily Fixed]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com

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