Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Silent Scythe - Longing For Sorrow - Independent Release - reviewed by: IcedMojo

Track Listing 1. Intro 2. Longing for Sorrow 3. Backstabber 4. My Only Family (My Only Enemy) 5. Old World Disorder 6. Suffer in Silence 7. To Each His Own 8. Feather

Silent Scythe--the band is loaded with raw ass kicking power. Unsigned, which plays a major factor in my thoughts; I believe that with the proper support and production assistance, Silent Scythe can and will do huge things in metal.

Created in 2001, this marks the bands second independent release. Led by Tommi Djukin (guitars and growls), and joined by Johan Strende (percussion and piano), Peter Henningson (acoustic and lead guitar), Tobbe Jansson (vocals), and Anders Frykebrant (bass), Silent Scythe has a lot of the right ingredients to be great, but, like I said, they lack the proper funding that a record label should provide to polish their records off.

Influenced by many types of metal, the band just wants to be labeled as pure metal. Melodic Death/Power/Thrash (what a combo!) is what I’d call this group. With all of that, it breaks down like this: Musically, their style can be described as similar to Hypocrisy, In Flames (pre-Reroute), Morbid Angel, and Slayer. Tracks such as “Longing For Sorrow”, “Backstabber”, and “Old World Disorder” beat your speakers to death and rattle your insides. The fast, heaviness is like the beating you give to you little brother or sister; it just pounds and pounds until you just get bored.

The other part to this equation is the vocal tracks of Tobbe Janson, he goes from power metal (which he is killer at) to thrash, sometimes in the same song. With tracks such as “Backstabber” and “My Only Family (My Only Enemy)”, striking with a thunderous Tim Owens like voice, that would impress Tim himself. I do wonder, though, about the vocal process with the other songs, (with the exception of “Feather” which is just a recording done while the band was drunk and partying). The sound is raw and powerful, and the background growls over the power vocals are awesome. I understand vast musical influence, but I am also under the impression that the flip-flop in styles makes the album difficult to follow. However, the something-for-everyone is a nice touch.

This was a band that I was shakey on at first, but after a few listens, it does tend to grow on you. Again, this is an opinion, but I think the band will be better served sticking with the raw, rough cut power vocals. The melodies on this album are to die for. I'm rating it a 6 out of 10, for mainly production reasons (although I realize this is no fault of Silent Scythe). I also feel that this album explores too broad a range of music and loses its edge.

Mostly, this is a powerful, in-your-face, kick-ass, pure adrenaline rush and I am looking forward to the next release!


--IcedMojo 01.13.04