Echoed Silence

Reviewed: "Bittersweet No More"

Well? Hard rocking Australians Echoed Silence serve up a dose of sludgie rock n roll that's borders on sounding like half of Iron Maiden mixed up with half of stalwart punk rockers the Exploited.

How so, you may ask? Well, Echoed Silence are most definitely a metal band, but the '77 style drumming, growly 'oi oi' second vocals and the (presumably) live recording of the whole thing gives it a very punk rock feel. This is not to be confused with sounding punk-metal, mind (or even metal-punk!) - these are just metal songs played and recorded in a very punkie way. Ala the aforementioned Exploited.

Of course, dwelling on the Exploited would be doing Echoed Silence a disservice - there is a lot more depth and thought here than the Exploited would dare to include in any of their songs. The voc las alternate, and sometimes combine, in a very modern-metal way, and the whole thing is very reminiscent of (back to the comparisons again...) Paul Diano era Iron Maiden.

Overall? Strong retro-metal tunes with a cool garage punk undertone. Check em out!

Reviewed by SD