Silas

Coming straight out of the "death metal state" of the nineties, is a band with a real first name and a ferocious, emotionally intense sound. Meet Silas.

This band revels in rhythmic dissonance; moreso than many bands around at the moment, these guys excel at writing complicated song forms. The music they create has a huge scope; the songs are incredibly ambitious in terms of the amount of material they encompass, and constructed in a thoroughgoing and convincing manner.

In response to the questions I sent out at the beginning of this current round of reviews, I was given to understand that this St. Petersburg Florida five piece has a diverse array of influences. One thing that intrigued me in the list was a mention of classical music and jazz.

The reason that I found this to be so interesting is that this is the first band in a year that I have found that is committed to the ideal of writing contemporary, uncompromisingly heavy underground music that listed these two genres as among the musics that inform their aesthetic and thinking.

The influence is there; it's undeniable. One of the first aspects of the groups texture that jumps out at you in this respect is the use of keyboards to emphasize the harmonic variation and clarify the bassline. When the keyboard is functioning in this capacity, it lends a deeply expressive quality to the music that heightens the emotional impact considerably.

Another aspect of their sound is in the use of arpeggios and scalar passages in the guitar parts. Many guitarists employ these devices; they are the essence of melodic structure and omnipresent, available in just about all styles of western music.

However, there is a particular way of deploying these devices that imparts a type of flavor in the hands of string players of a certain mindset. When played in this manner, the resulting phrasing is imbues with a particularly "European" aesthetic. This type of approach ended up becoming the "neo-classical" school of guitar playing, some of whose exponents incluce Yngwie Malmsteen and one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Randy Rhoads.

What I like about Silas' approach to this type of guitar playing is the way they retool the concept in the context of their style. Phrases are punctuated by lightning fast figurations and the passagework connecting sections is astonishingly intricate at times. One example that springs to mind is "When Triad MET-ALkoline", the second track off of the two track player on MySpace.

For a song that is just under five minutes, there is a massive scope to it. In the first twenty seconds alone, the amount of energy these boys emit is numbing. During the course of the entire 4:48, the sheer quantity of sectional changes and transitional passages is testament to this bands talent and work ethic. My favorite part of the song is the transition from the guitar solo to the final section , where the action has died down a bit and things are winding to their end. The solo crowns the climax of the song and provides the necessary release of all the energy that has been pooling. The whole last minute and a half is simply beautiful, and brings a powerful sense of closure to what has come before it.

All in all, I find that the deeper I dig into the current underground music scene, that more incredible bands I find. Silas is another to add to the list; on top of that, this five piece has developed a style rich in emotional expression and an approach to formal development that heightens the drama inherent in the lyrics. Listen to this band, they have something to say.

check em out at:

www.myspace.com/silasfl