| Reviews for Life's Decay's Szilentia |
| The Next Step. - 95% |
| Written by Vega360
on October 5th, 2007
|
| Life’s Decay, this band sort of worked there way into my normal playlist, I loved there past albums, so I was anxious to hear this one. “Szilentia” has been described by the band as being the next step in the bands obscure evolution and more “accessible” than there previous efforts. This album is definitely more accessible than there past albums, more variation and a few less tracks. However, accessibility is a nice thing to have, but will the project still evolve at the same time. The answer is yes. “Szilentia” isn’t as much of a leap from “Lysselia” as it is a step into different directions higher up the ladder. The bands main elements (percussion, keys and vocals) are all present in newer more varied forms. The vocals are still the same melodic range as the previous two albums. Some effects and volume changes are used to enhance the atmosphere which helps to set the tracks apart somewhat, giving different parts of the album different personalities. Percussion wise, the drumming is much more martial than on previous albums. The album starts out with the drums in full force, however as the album goes on the focus is shifted from aggressive to more relaxed pacing. By the end of the album several of the songs have a more atmospheric drifting feeling to them. Lyktwasst composed the synth tones to be much more somber and atmospheric. A lot of the songs have many ambient influenced passages, as they did on the previous album, however this time there more relevant. My only real problem with this release is that some of the songs seem to flow into more popish areas. This isn’t as relevant towards the beginning of the album, but it slowly shifts into more upbeat structures. Now my preference for anything “poppy” is very little, but the band blends the majority of these elements in at levels I can deal with. The only real point in the album where these elements came off weird for me was the eleventh track. Vocals on this song sound somewhat cheery and the acoustics seem to take this into very obscure foreign territories for the band, sadly this contrasts a little with the mood of the album. In closing, I see this album as a more atmospheric album than there other releases. The album is more or less a mood trip, it starts off aggressive then evens out around the later middle, before somewhat coming full circle at the end. This album is another well done performance by the ever evolving progressive martial unit known as Life’s Decay. |