Review Summary: boring.
I’ve heard it all before, too many times, in fact. Female-fronted mainstream gothic rock/metal has garnered quite a following in terms of raw amounts of bands claiming to play it, and it is doubtful to slow down any time soon. I mean, just think about it. Sexy female vocals (and sometimes vocalists), spanking guitars, spicy melodies, the genre has it all right? At least, that’s what the industry would like you to believe as they continue to hire bands with hot female singers, which is the equivalent of flirting and wiggling their fingers. No matter how much substance the music can lack, no matter how boring it may actually be, at least they have a hot singer right? Bah. I like the genre because it combines accessible melodies with a dark edge. Elysion do that, and they do it well, yet if you’re looking for the next groundbreaking mainstream gothic album, look further.
Silent Scream proves nothing except that the genre may never crawl out of the grave it keeps digging. They don’t necessarily do anything wrong, but they also don’t do anything noticeable. Sure, the singer can sing, the guitars are decent although bland, and the choruses are solid, but they ultimately amount to nothing - unfortunately, Elysion is an utterly forgettable band. Creating such average, ho-hum music could be forgiven if they, at the very least, showed some originality, but it often seems like they couldn’t care less about being interesting. The album goes from one boring song to the next, with stand-out moments being practically inexistent. Although they sometimes bring in electronic elements to spice things up, they are played with too much restrain and consequently go unnoticed. Generally,
Silent Scream is forgettable, and not in the nice way (is there even a nice way?).
The one saving grace of the album is the… um… you know. If you like your gothic metal slowed down, without guitar hooks, memorable choruses, etc., you might like this, but why would you? I suppose there’s some merit to nice, melodic guitars with no particular rush, but there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. They’re basically just there, like the sound of the ocean if it was made boring somehow. This also goes for the vocalist who sings decent enough, but does not make a habit of showing off her pipes. The band basically do what they do well, and they do it convincingly gothic, but they do it absolutely ploddingly. Amidst billions of similar bands that show personality, Elysion is grasping at straws that do not even exist.
