Silencer
Divisions

March 2009
Released: 2009, F-Bomb Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Munkwunk

When I first started listening to Silencer's sophomore release, DIVISIONS, I honestly wasn't sure what to make of it. I figured it would wind up as just another album in the review pile which would just take a few minutes to write up. As it turns out, this has been a tricky one to pigeonhole and thus has taken quite some time and no fewer than a dozen spins to nail down.



DIVISIONS tries to be a lot of things at once: a deathy melodic thrash metal album with some industrial undertones, similar to something you would expect from Fear Factory but not quite as pronounced. In fact, Chad Armstrong's screams occasionally resemble Burton C. Bell's, though he never really ventures in to melodic singing so he certainly couldn't be compared beyond that. The music is riff-intensive, the lead guitar work is extraordinary, and the whole package feels very tight. Despite the technical achievements of the album though, the band never really experiments enough with the sound to give it a defining edge.



Silencer have what it takes to produce a killer album, but they need to decide which route they are going to take to do it. Every member of the band contributes something worthwhile, but the parts never really combine to be anything spectacular as a package. DIVISIONS makes a good listen for fans of the deathy thrash metal sound, and fans of Darkane, Fear Factory, Meshuggah and the like will most likely enjoy this release, but it isn't going to take the metal world by storm. Hopefully the band's next release will do more to break apart from the rest of the crowd and show us what the band is really about.