Band : White Silence

Album title : White Silence

Label : Own release

Distributor : Own release

Release date : 28/12/2007

Release : 4-track demo cd-R

This Californian "Metal" band operates from the small Northern Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. Not much known or posted on the band's website whitesilence.ws (which links automatically to or on the info sheet they sent along with their official debut demo (apparently the boys hàve other recordings, but didn't "release" anything yet), issued on December 28 of last year.

They became a fivepiece in January 2008 with a line-up comprising singer Quinn, rhythm guitarist Adam, lead guitarist Brandon, bassist Chase (most probably the latest addition, see also later), and drummer Brogen. This happened shortly after the release of the band's first demo (the one we're reviewing here), the recording of which was apparently made possible thanks to Caleb Bingham of Ascension, whom also played the bass. The main vision of the band is to bring a more melodic sound to American Metal or, as they put it themselves: "We want to bring something new to the table and give the fans a more wide variety of Metal in our music"! In the short time the guys have been together, they have already succeeded to play a good deal of shows throughout the LA area, including such world famous places as the Whisky AGoGo and Knitting Factory venues in Hollywood.

Musically, you could put White Silence in the Melodic Black Metal genre, the "Black" mainly induced by the icy vocal antics of singer Quinn. In the case of the track "Lead You To Your Grave", I'm suspecting they based the main melody of the song on some Folk diddy one of the guys heard somewhere, the melody in question being a quite typical bit of music which you would usually find played on bagpipes or even a shawn. The guitarists have a real great rhythm/ lead interaction with a certain degree of Prog in 'em, which certainly does wonders in bringing oiut the melodic side of things! I ain't sure if the lyrics follow suit in the Black or Death genre (quite honestly, I've been too preoccupied by the excellent musicianship of the boys to bother with trying to understand what they sing about), although song titles like "Keeper Of The Beast", "Lead You To Your Grave", "Everything I've Learned To Fear", and "The Blessed And The Wicked" certainly are a positive indicative in that direction.

The boys have posted the complete demo at myspace.com/whitesilenceofficial, and you should even be able to download the whole thing (not being a downloader myself, I have no idea how those things are done, but since the guys mention the thing to be downloadable, it mùst be, right?). Seems like since the recordings of their demo, the guys have gone into a writing mode, working hard on new tracks, and they claim to be close   to having enough material for a full-length recording (something which they look out for with anticipation). Anyways, the demo having been released so late in the year (huh...only 3 days left), I'm gonna count this one as having been released in 2008, and am therefore nominating the untitled jem into my "Best Demoes Of 2008"-list!

98/100

Tony.