Review Summary: Solid, but unoriginal debut that barely escapes being borderline cheesy at times.
End of Silence was Red’s debut album which released in 2006 with quick success to it’s breakout singles “Breathe into Me” and “Already Over”. EOS quickly garnered the attention of Christian Rock radio with it’s heavy, raw sound, which is heavily influenced by Chevelle and Linkin Park, and is frequently regarded as an important record in the history of Christian Rock. I first heard the album in 2008 when Air1 started frequently playing songs from the record, which was my first exposure to RED and I remember listening to this album on CD quite a lot back then. Has this album stood the test of time? Or has it grown dated, wrapped in cliches of the genre and belong left in it’s time like many argue? Let’s find out.
The first song is “Breathe Into Me”, which is a great opening track and brings a fast-paced riff and catchy chorus that hits super hard after the intro track. Despite it being the band’s biggest hit to date and a massive success single, the song is still insanely enjoyable today, especially when the listening to the full album.
The album then goes into Let Go, a song that carries the tone from Breathe Into Me with a slower riff and while this song hasn’t aged as well as other tracks on the album, it still is an enjoyable listen. The song also features the longest scream on the album and ends on a symphonic acoustic outro that leads into our next song, “Already Over”.
“Already Over”, the second single from the album starts slow with a great build-up throughout the song and a catchy chorus that gets stuck in your head and is impossible to not sing along to. The song introduces piano elements and maintains a ballad-like pace without ever feeling like a ballad. Even today it’s easy to see why this song was such a big hit and showed Red’s potential, which as we all know, they would fully tap into on later records.
“Lost” is a journey of a song that opens with a slow piano intro before erupting into thick distorted guitars and an insanely emotional chorus that showcases Mike Barnes’ vocal ability while never feeling overdone. The song builds over time before slowing into a cinematic turnaround and dramatic instrumentals to close out the song. “Lost” was one of my favorite songs on the album upon my first listen and remains one to this day.
“Pieces” is a gut-wrenching piano ballad that opens with over a minute of emotional instrumentals that set the tone perfectly for the rest of the song. While parts of the song come off as overdone and “dated”, it is easily the most overt song on the album about finding redemption in Jesus Christ and some lyrics could easily fit in a modern worship song.
“Break Me Down” is one of the most forgettable tracks on the album and ultimately falls into the cliches and tropes of 2000s hard rock and the lyrics come off as cheesy and could have been played by any other popular band at the time. The song also has a few production flaws and could have been executed better.
“Wasting Time” opens with a menacing scream and some of the heaviest riffage on the album bringing life back into an album that was starting to drag. The chorus of the song is super catchy however the lyrics are incredibly cheesy and generic as one of those “You’ll never beat me, hit me and I’ll hit you back harder” stereotypes that are sadly true in many rock songs. The song has some of my favorite instrumentation which outweighs the lyrics, though I wouldn’t consider it one of my favorites on the album overall.
“Gave it All Away” is a standout track from the album with a desperate cry for to fix a failing relationship and a standout vocal performance that brings a ton of energy into the song as it ends with a breakdown.
“HIde” sounds like almost an exact copy of Linkin Park’s song “From the Inside”, with very similar instrumentation and eerily close melodies and the same chords in both songs and the same breakdown. The song itself is not bad at all and can be enjoyable, however if you’ve heard the original song, it’s almost impossible to not compare the two and makes for a forgettable track compared to other songs on the album. “Hide” leads into a dramatic piano interlude that closes out the album in the most fitting way possible. The final track on the record is Already Over, Pt. 2, an acoustic version of the previously mentioned track which doesn’t really add or subtract anything to/from the album.
End Of Silence is an album of it’s time, while it at times falls into tropes of itself, it has many memorable moments that outweigh the negative parts of the record. While the overall sound of the album isn’t anything unique, many moments showcased the potential the band had and an impressive vocal performance on every track from Mike Barnes. The orchestral elements add a lot to each track and really stand out at times, with those elements being key to drawing the fanbase they gained fast very early on in their career. It was a promising debut album that showed that RED was a force to be reckoned with, and despite its pitfalls, it is still an enjoyable listen from start to finish.
Rating: 3.7/5
Favorite tracks: Breathe Into Me, Lost, Gave It All Away
Least Favorites: Break Me Down, Hide, Wasting Time
