Reborn

The term progressive metal denotes a genre that is pretty hard to define, except in that it denotes a unique approach to the metal style. Superimposing the word melodic upon it may clear up the question of whether the sound includes toneless grunts or emphasizes dissonance, but a lot is still left up to the imagination. While underground German metal mainstays Source Of Silence (formerly known as Sin Nombre) definitely present a unique sound, the genre that it tends to resemble is something of a hybrid of traditional doom and early 80s NWOBHM.

The presentation of each song is fairly straightforward, emphasizing low end distorted guitar riffs that bring back memories of “Master Of Reality”, except mostly dwelling upon the slower (but occasionally fast) and longer winded songwriting approach presented particularly on “Lord Of This World” and “Into The Void”. The occasional guitar soloing has a slight bit of a Vivian Campbell flavor to it, but maintaining the same low end, sludgy tone present in the rhythm guitars. The bass and drums are fairly evenly placed in the mix aside the guitars, and also tend to exhibit the looseness of the doom/stoner style. The only aspect of the arrangement that breaks away from the original Sabbath mold is Oliver Gantert’s vocals, which mostly resemble an Ian Gillian or Robert Lowe character of rough yet melodic high ranged singing.

Most of the songs tend to be somber and woeful, as appropriate to the traditions of the style the band mostly exhibits. “Moonless Night” and “Follow Me Astray” are the closest to the purely heavy ended, muddy and thudding rock that is often poorly performed by a host of Ozzy wannabe doom acts of late, but retain the enjoyable qualities of the original that are often lacking from the later generations. Others such as “Fairy Dance” and “Soul Healer” go towards a still heavy, but lighter hearted blend of metallic landscaping and psychedelic stoner rock lyrics, the former sounding almost happy at times, while the latter has some eastern musical characteristics and occasionally flirts with speed metal.

Although limited to a 5 piece arrangement, the band makes good use of atmospheric elements and manages to throw in a few Progressive ideas to keep the listener intrigued. “Kingdom of Silence” exhibits this up tempo jazzy character throughout and actually goes into a couple of full jazz breakdown sections starting at about 2 minutes into the song, almost like something you’d hear on the latest To-Mera release. “Turned To Stone” has this atmospheric quiet section that sounds somewhat like a gloomy Alice In Chains ballad, later giving way to this solid low end groove riff that has a slight southern character to it.

As far as comparisons to current bands go, some might say that this is similar to what The Sword would put out, but definitely without the really horribly conceived fantasy based lyrics, weak vocals, and with a hell of a lot more musical credibility. Source Of Silence definitely exhibits a lot of Sabbath influences, but doesn’t try to relive the past with an obsolete approach to production or a slavish duty to pre-conceived mainstream stereotypes of the metal style. It’s an extremely impressive listen for a self-made band with no major label backing, and definitely worthy of the attention of any fan of traditional doom, stoner or straight up heavy metal.

First submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on August 3, 2008.