Silence Betrayed
by Mark Allen
Staff Writer
San Diego-based indie metal band Silence Betrayed have big aspirations. “We want to be the next Guns ‘N Roses,” front-man Joe La once proclaimed. Nothing wrong with that. Rock super-stardom is as good a goal as any, and Silence Betrayed have several elements locked in place that could give them a fighting chance at achieving success. However, this debut album features some negative aspects as well, and these negatives must be conquered before the band finds the mainstream acceptance it covets.
Silence Betrayed is part post-hardcore, part modern hard rock, and part rap-metal. While they play this amalgam of styles very well, laying down some powerfully heavy riffs guaranteed to get your head banging like a maniac, you have to wonder if rap-metal is the cart you want to hitch your horse to when GNR-size success is your hopeful destination. Sure, it’s possible to achieve moderate success with this limited appeal genre—just look at Hollywood Underground for a recent example—but even the former champs of the genre such as Linkin Park, Slipknot, and Saliva have rid themselves of the rap in favor of pure rock. Silence Betrayed should do the same.
The band does hardcore heaviness well. The guitars are as big and beefy as a herd of buffalo and crank out the kind of semi-melodic but still brutally heavy riffs that most modern metal bands would kill a litter of kittens in order to obtain. Intertwined with these raging riffs are some excellent verse/bridge hooks; unfortunately, most of the chorus hooks—and really, it’s the chorus that counts—fall a little short. It’s a musical cock-tease, getting you excited for a payoff that never quite comes, and like any failed stroke-job, it leaves you sorely frustrated, because you can sense how good things could be, if only someone had taken a little more time to sharpen up the choruses.
Early on, singer Joe La may remind you of David Mustaine, but for most of the remainder of the album he displays a harsh, semi-hardcore vocal style that is laced with attitude, even erupting into full-on screams from time to time. His voice is similar to Joey Duenas (Anew Revolution) but with even more abrasion, as if someone removed Duenas’ esophagus, scrubbed it with sandpaper, then transplanted it into Joe La’s throat.
The band deserves a round of ice-cold beer and hot Swedish hookers for the production job on this album. Despite producing it themselves, the sonic engineering easily equals anything out there on modern rock radio. Honestly, this project could not sound better, production-wise, if Howard Benson or Skidd Mills had twiddled the knobs.
Lackluster choruses aside, the songs for the most part are solid affairs. “I’ve Been Bad,” with its profane, sexualized lyrics, features one of the catchiest refrains on the album. “Faultlines” has been tagged as their heavy-hitting first single, but the rap-metal portion makes this feel a little less than fresh. “More Than You” hammers home the heaviness, delivering pounding rhythms that slam your guts against your backbone while layered backing vocals maintain a melodic edge. Silence Betrayed also can’t resist attempting a ballad, but to be blunt, they should never do so again, because “Today (We Stay)” is cringingly bad. “Bright,” however, brings things to a high-quality close, starting out like a Kid Rock tune before exploding into a heavy groove with a decent chorus that mixes slick harmonies with shredding screams.
Bottom line, Silence Betrayed is not terrible; they simply need to make some adjustments if they hope to expand their fan base beyond a regional level. The framework for a kickass modern metal band is definitely there. For their sophomore album, they should relegate the rap to the refuse bin, serve the metal with some straight-up slam, sharpen those choruses until they gleam like a cutthroat razor, and then the hardcore metal masses will no longer be silent about Silence Betrayed.
Genre: Metal
Band:
Joe La (lead vocals)
Mikey C. (bass, vocals)
Danimal (guitars, vocals)
Cresus Jeist(drums)
Track Listing
1. Blindspot
2. My Lesson
3. Older
4. I’ve Been Bad
5. How I Bleed
6. Faultlines
7. Articles of Clara
8. More Than You
9. Today (We Stay)
10. Bright
Webpage: www.myspace.com/silencebetrayed
Label: indie
Hardrock Haven rating: 6.9/10
This is Cresus Jeist (CJ), the drummer of SB. I have to say this is one of the best, most honest reviews we have had since the debut release of our Self-titled album. You hit it head on. We need this kind of feedback to make progress and push ourselves forward in the music scene. I can’t thank you guys enough for taking the time to critique our album. We have evolved over time and will continue to change and find our formula. We do need minor adjustments. I would agree completely. Again, thanks for giving us the feedback that we so need. Many people in the scene are not brutally honest and we need the brutal honesty. Hope to hear from you guys again,
sincerely,
Cresus Jeist (CJ)
Thanks, CJ. I really did like several things about your album and would happily review your sophomore effort when (notice I said “when,” not “if”) you get around to recording it.
Keep it hard.
Mark Allen
Staff Writer
Hardrock Haven
I think you meant to say “Hollywood Undead” as a recent example, not “Hollywood Underground”, which is a badass Seattle mgmt company! -Im monitoring Google Alerts 🙂
Thanks for the catch, J. You are correct, that should be Hollywood Undead, not Hollywood Underground. Hollywood Underground was the name of the band I was listening to when I wrote the review, hence the mistake. I suspect the moderators will make the correction when they see these posts.
Keep it hard.
Mark Allen
Staff Writer
Hardrock Haven