Silent Memorial Retrospective
by Joe Mis
Staff Writer
Retrospective is the second release from the Swiss progressive metal outfit Silent Memorial. Led by guitarist Christoph Baertschi and keyboard player Chris Haenggi, Silent Memorial recorded their first album entitled Cosmic Handball in 1997. EMI Records released the debut only in Asia in 1998, and the band soon split.
Baertschi and Haenggi stayed together and continued to compose new music. In 2005 they decided that the time was right to reform the band and started recruiting new members. They added Mike Andersson (ex-Cloudscape) on lead vocals, Sugar Burns on bass and Diego Rapacchietti on drums. They recorded Retrospective in 2006/2007 and then tried to find a label willing to release it. They eventually signed with German label LMP.
With this being a progressive metal album, comparisons to Dream Theater are inevitable. The sound overall is very much like the older Dream Theater releases, Images & Words or Awake.
“Human Mind” opens the album with a heavy guitar riff and keyboard intro that would be right at home on any older DT album. Andersson’s voice sets this apart as he sings in a much lower register than DT’s James LaBrie (he occasionally sounds much like Jorn Lande), and the riffs settle down during the verses of the song to allow vocals to take over.
“Differences” opens with a nice guitar/drum/bass line that fades into an almost Fates Warning-like song with a great chorus and solid vocals. “Fear” is a good guitar driven song with a great solo. These first three tracks are solid but not outstanding
“Retrospective” is the obvious centerpiece of the album, clocking in at almost twenty-two and a half minutes. It is truly an epic song displaying good musicianship, nice tempo changes and a punchy but varied rhythm line. Each member of the band gets to show off a bit, and the song is very well crafted from start to finish. The vocals are strong, the lyrics are decent and the music well done.
Three more tracks follow to complete the CD. “The Darkest Hour” is a moody piece with some nice guitar work. “TV World” and “Lost” are fairly conventional progressive metal tracks that don’t fall far from the basic prog metal tree.
The production and engineering is excellent, the sound is crisp and clean and the vocals clear. Nice job.
All in all, Retrospective is a mixed bag. There is no doubt that the members of Silent Memorial are extremely talented, but outside of the incredible work on the title track there is nothing out of the ordinary. The balance of the album is run-of-the-mill heard-it-before progressive metal. Retrospective is very well done but it lacking something, and leaves the listener wanting just a little more out of the band. Silent Memorial needs to spend a bit more time in the hunt for an original and creative sound, otherwise they will be pigeonholed as simply another Dream Theater wannabe. They have the talent to pull it off, but will they make the effort?
If you are a big prog metal fan you won’t be disappointed with Retrospective, but if you are looking to break some new ground, look elsewhere.
Label: LMP Limb Music Products
Web: http://www.myspace.com/silentmemorial and http://www.limb-music.de/cgi-bin/limb.cgi
Track Listing:
01. Human Mind
02. Differences
03. Fear
04. Retrospective
05. The Darkest Hour
06. TV World
07. Lost
HRH Rating: 7.5/10