Review Summary: The intellectual manner in which the album combines pure-hearted, pop oriented vocals with alt-rock elements, and that it is delivered this convincingly is nothing short of astounding.
For an album so obsessed with breaking promises, severing the ties, wriggling from the wreckage of fireball relationships and starting anew, 'Discovering the Waterfront', Silverstein's sophomore release is awfully good. When one normally thinks of such lyrical trappings combined with chugging express-train heavy metal, it's normally grimace inducing. The case with Silverstein is quite different. With this benchmark screamo album, the band widen the playing field for American alt-rock considerably, making way for new genres, techniques and combinations. It's also done with an artistic flare not seen since At the Drive-In, and Silverstein don't completely understand that band's restless, innovative spark. They don't have all of the heaviness of their contemporaries, either. What Silverstein do have is chops, enthusiasm and maturity. It's what takes this album beyond the rest.
'Your Sword vs. My Dagger's' gloriously frontal attack makes it the perfect opener. While its graphic lyrics are typical of the genre, its sly Shakespeare reference (the line 'Verona lives inside of you', Verona being the setting of Romeo and Juliet) and conservative use of screaming give it dimension, depth and replay value. It's the epitome of a band hitting the ground running. It's on songs like this, the wonderfully obtuse yet compelling 'Always and Never' and 'Defend You', which is a positive earthquake, that the band establish both their instrumental chops and their ability to revitalize old tricks and salvage old clichés and make them vibrant and exciting again. They don't have a whole lot of chart appeal (though the album did auspiciously well on it's chart run), but plenty more than any of their contemporaries: it lies in their riffs, which are both riotous and infectious, and their roof-raising choruses.
But if you've been living with Silverstein's rabid debut 'When Broken Can Never Be Fixed', you'll know that the band are solid musicians and can bruise and chug with the best of them. The real reason to listen to 'Discovering the Waterfront' are the new directions. The album's lead-off single 'Smile In Your Sleep' has a typically heavy chorus, but its verses are featherweight (in a good way), driven by a breezy jazz groove and some light tapping and spacey, subtle keyboards. The album's title track and centerpiece is another obvious highlight. It's slow instrumental brooding and reflective lyricism complimented by some twinkling arpeggios are emotive enough. But it's the weeping string arrangement that makes the song a perfectly rounded nugget of alt-rock. Occasionally, the band will bravely try to fuse their post-hardcore roots with their pop tendencies. This can result in some cracking good music, like 'My Heroine' and 'Already Dead', but other moments, like the perfectly passable 'Three Hours Back' and 'The Ides of March' and slight and can seem half-hearted.
The album, however fresh and exciting it may be, is not without it's faults. Vocalist/lyricist Shane Told has a fantastic range, but his lyrics tend to let him down. There are several one-liners and passages with flow in the album, but for someone so vocally literate the lyrics could stand to be improved upon. Also, sometimes Silverstein don't recycle musical phrases with enough distinction, and you may initially feel in the album that many of the songs bleed into one flood of distorted emotions. If you can stand this, 'Discovering the Waterfront' is both a satisfying and a pleasingly challenging and fresh listen than fans of alt-rock will most certainly enjoy.
