This Age Of Silence Review

Release Date: Jun 12, 2007
Label: Metal Blade
Genres: Progressive Metal, Thrash, Alternative Metal, Heavy Metal
Number Of Tracks: 9
This Age of Silence is as good as anything in this vein you are going to hear and better than most.

Sound:	9.5
Lyrics:	8.5
Impression:	9.5
Overall rating:	9.2
Users rating:	9.5
Comments:	11

overall: 9.7

Featured review by: YourMessiah666, on july 21, 2007

Sound: First off I would like to say, Anterior is a new up and coming metal-core type band that needs to be heard. They are an excellent band, and this is an excellent CD. I am honoured to be the first reviewer. Anyways, the sound on this album is amazing. The guitars are mind blowing, the vocals are perfectly done, and the drums are beautiful. The album art is aswell amazing, I love their symbol. // 10

Lyrics and Singing: The lyrics I would say are your average metal lyrics. The voice of Luke Davies is absolutely wicked. It could not sound better! It flows so amazingly well with the whole sound of the band. He is a screamer, but not a growler, so you can understand some of the vocabulary he uses. There are a few tracks that do not have vocals, and on those tracks, the guitaring speaks for itself! // 9

Impression: 01. Ghost Of Dawn - an instrumental track. A great way to open up this album.
02. The Silent Divide - a great song. The guitaring is very very well done. I feel the song is just a bit long.
03. Dead Divine - this song is an amazing way to sum up Anterior. Fast, hardcore, amazing guitar solo, nice little acoustic background. All around a great track.
04. Days Of Deliverance - this song has got so much style! One of the best on the whole album. Amazing.
05. Human Hive - this is a good song, but nothing to me really stood out. Besides the solo, which does on every single song.
06. Stir Of Echoes - a non vocal track. It's almost Spanish acoustic style guitaring. And boy oh boy is it amazing! Wow. This band is good at everything!
07. Scar City - I get an extremem CoB/KSE vibe from this song. Very well done.
08. Seraph - I do not know where this song title came from, but I would sure like to know. Cause it's a stunningly awesome song!
09. This Age Of Silence - the title track. I don't think this song is quite worthy of first place, but it definitely up there in the top. The solo is f--king great!

Overall, this is an amazing metal album! I would recommend this album to fans of, Himsa, CoB, Killswitch Engage, or even BFMV. If this CD was stolen from me, I would buy a new one for sure. Go out and buy yourself a copy! // 10

overall: 8.7

Reviewed by: Randy-Rhoads, on august 26, 2009

Sound: Anterior is a band new to the modern metal community, and by the sound of this, their debut album, they're gonna set it's ass on fire.

Their sound fits well into the metal core genre while still maintaining a sense of uniqueness. In short, they are instantly identifiable in a genre that has become overcrowded and underrated. Each instrument holds its own and has something to add to the sound as a whole. Sustained double base runs kick in at the perfect times, harmonized guitars create melodic and energetic tone reminiscent of bands like iron maiden and judas priest, and the bass rhythmically defibrillates your heart to make sure the heaviest portions don't put you in the ground.

In my own personal opinion the guitar solos are the most predominant aspects of this album. Nearly every song has an incredible solo (This being a guitar website, I feel I can go into detail on this aspect/opinion). From the melodic solo's to the the most extreme shred solo's, a unique sound and depiction of skill is presented. Some perfect examples of this are the solo's in "Dead Divine" and "Seraph". Dead Divine flows surreally into a melodic solo from a pounding chorus segment and then builds up again to an incredible sweeping run that leads into a brilliantly constructed shred solo. As for Seraph, it may not be the fastest solo on the album but its scale degree intervals and intelligent use of bends display the mind of either a brilliant music theorist or persistent experimentalist.

Striking as the solo's may be the harmonizing of the guitars has an equally defining sound. "Human Hive" has the most effective medium for displaying this, the 20 second harmonized sweeping solo interlude is... well... impressive would be an understatement.

They do also implant some acoustic work into the album, mainly the acoustic instrumental track "Stir of Echoes". Semi-spanish style acoustic guitars over (what sounds like) synthesized stringed orchestral instruments, work to break up the pace of the album without disrupting it. The track is a exceptional example of a great metal band's ability to write within a different genre and playing style. // 9

Lyrics and Singing: Luke Davies' voice is one of the most central and powerful driving forces behind this album. He is screaming for nearly the entire album, with the exception of the occasional two second growl or foreboding speaking segment. Fans of the genre can, with relative ease, understand most of what he's saying. However, anyone new to the genre won't understand a word, save for recognizing track titles like "The Silent Divide". The words themselves are average metal lyrics in terms of focus and complexity; They are all surrounding dark themes, and the vocabulary is a lot smarter than your average pop song. What I find somewhat personally disappointing, is the most intelligently written lines are forebodingly spoken at the beginning of "Dead Divine", and are barely comprehendible. The lines I'm referring to are "The mute voice of reason, Whispered softly into the, Deaf ears of insanity, A dark cloud, Swallows a midday sky, As I sat here dressed in divinity"

What does stand out in terms of the singing is the tone, passion, and energy with which Davies screams each word. I dare you to try not to crack a little smile or start to bang your head as Davies screams at the opening of "Days of Deliverance". // 8

Impression: I've heard a lot of comparisons of Anterior to another metal band, Trivium. As a fan of both these bands I can say that they do display some similarities, and if you like one of them you will most likely like the other, but by no means are they exactly the same. Matt Heafy (singer/guitarist for trivium) and Luke Davies do have similar screaming styles. However Heafy's style has a little deeper tone to it while Davies' is brighter and has more treble. This can be said for the instruments as well, Anteriors guitar tone is a little brighter with a little more treble and gain/overdrive. Still it is hard to compare the two, as Trivium has four studio albums released to date, This Age of Silence is all we have heard of Anterior thus far... but we got an ear full.

It would be exceedingly difficult for me to pick a favorite song off the album but at this current point in time I believe it would be Dead Divine. As a guitar player, the solo left me stupefied and the riffs and melodic octave power chord tones jumped out at me more than in most of the other tracks. I have a personal opinion that certain albums you simply cannot buy off itunes or similar services. You need to own the album in its true physical manifestation, albums like Megadeth's Peace sells & Rust in Peace, Metallica's Kill em' All & Master of Puppets, and Guns n' Roses Appetite For Destruction. I feel This Age of Silence is one of those albums, it is a pillar constructed of sound and powerful emotion... plus it'll blow your b*lls off. // 9

Comments

[dimebag_darrell]

2 words man, ****ing-rad, the song The Silent Divide truly expresses their amazing legendary sound

[menali]

Awesome album, its like a much cooler version of early Trivium.

[dimebag_darrell]

menali wrote:

Awesome album, its like a much cooler version of early Trivium.

ture that bro

[fwibble]

these guys are amazing players, and stunningly thry pull it all off perfect live, even the twinned solos which is mind blowing.

[roosterfx1]

love the solos in this album.

[MaidenRulez666]

THE GREATEST BAND AROUND RIGHT NOW!!!! These guys would own your soul and rape the innocent of....their innocence lol. Seriously though..these guys are the best.

[Lukeydoodly]

So much potential..

[Independant]

heard there writing material for the second album
already.i dont know when they will be in studio

[Demon Seraph]

BTW Seraph means high court of angels or angel preist

[YourMessiah666]

yes it says they'll be hitting the studio sometime in january or february on their myspace if i remember correctly. ****in can't wait

[DevonHobi]

Seraph is by far the best track. The Harmonized guitar solo almost makes it feel like an instrumental in the middle