Following up on the release of last year’s EP release of Don’t Hold Your Breath in quick time with this 11-track, 44-minute banger, 156/Silence certainly aren’t hanging around, nor are they here to make up the numbers.
The five-piece from Pennsylvania have come to lay their frustrations and anger out clearly for everyone to hear and experience and fuck me, its savage and brilliant.
From the opening track ‘A Past Embrace’ the Metalcore band leave it all out there, you can hear the anger in the drum strikes, frustrations are taken out on guitar strings and a sharply aggressive vocal all come together to create a cacophony of brutality.
Imagine taking the lid off a pressure cooker without letting that built-up pressure slowly release, whilst your face is over the top. That is what you are going to feel as your skin is vaporised and muscles cling on with the fear of tearing.
The breakdowns aren’t the slowest that you will hear but shit me, they are as aggressive as you will stumble across.
Then when the bass slaps at the start of ‘The Rodent Race’ you know that something special is coming and it certainly lands with a shudder. This bass-led monster is one of the highlights of this third full-length release by 156/Silence and is enough to make anyone cower in the corner of the room. This kind of aggression is something that cannot be put on, clearly, these boys are severely pissed off, but I have to say, it makes for some blistering music.
Narrative is one of those albums that I have listened to several times before writing this and I always somehow get to the end and wonder where the time has gone.
This is always a good sign of how involved I am in the album and the fact that it holds me for its entirety is always a positive. Then the fact that I rush to press play again tells me I really like what I’m listening to.
It is too narrow to suggest that this is one of the best Metalcore albums of the year, as this is not purely Metalcore. Combining with Post Rock, Punk and Hardcore this is just aggressive music fuelled by frustration and it sounds ace.
So, if you like your music angry, powerful and sounding utterly huge, then look no further than this juggernaut by 156/Silence.
Narrative will smash against all surfaces in the room and leave you a broken mess on the floor, begging for the play button to be pressed again.
Ed Ford
Narrative will be released Friday 2nd September 2022 via Sharptone Records.
Tracklist
- A Past Embrace 4:03
2. The Rodents Race 3:29
3. Another Loss 3:03
4. For All To Blame 3:18
5. I Am A Fault 1:26
6. To Take Your Place 3:50
7. If Pleasure’s Gone 3:22
8. Stay Away 4:39
9. Tell The Reason 3:12
10. Say The Phrase 4:10
11. Live To See A Darker Day 8:52
Online
https://sharptonerecords.co/collections/156-silence