The Open-The Silent Hours
Members
Lead Vocals,Guitar - Steven Bayley
Bass - Jim Reynolds
Lead Guitar - Jon Winter
Drums - Scott Holland
Keyboards, Artwork - Alan Dutton
This is their debut album. They sound a bit like The Verve and U2 but they also have their own unique sound. I bought this album after seeing them the live supporting Hope of the States. If you like them you should really try and see them live, it was a great performance, they were just as good as HOTS, maybe even better!
TRACKS
Close My Eyes
Bring Me Down
Lost
Forgotten
Daybreak
Just Want To Live
Step Into The Light
Coming Down
Can You Hear?
Elevation
Close My Eyes
This is one of the best tracks on the album, and a great way to open it too. The guitars are nice and bright sounding and go really well with the slow piano at the beginning. A great bass and drums make this track a real winner. This song reminds me of U2 quite a bit, the lead guitar is ladened with effects during the chorus just like The Edge used to do in earlier U2 records. 4/5
Bring Me Down
Starting off with echoey guitars, Bring Me Down is probably the best song on the album in my opinion. The backing vocals are brilliantlly done and the solo in the middle is great. The solo to end with is amazingly done and again is very similar to The Edge's work in quite a few areas. A brillinat song, and its amazing to see it performed live. 5/5
Lost
This song starts off with a synethezied effect, with a repeated guitar riff and a good drum beat before the bass comes in with a cool riff, and the piano. The the distred guitar kicks in. I like the way that the verses are quietened down without any distorted guitars, and then it is built up into the chorus. The synthesizers in this song, along with the piano can get rather annoying, however the short guitar solo is again briliant. 3.5/5
Forgotten
Opening with a really quick drum and and guitar riff, this song is one of the best songs on the album, going quickly from the startilingly quick opening and verse to the sweet and slow choruses. The synthesizers and piano add a good break up into some of the song, and the vocals are brilliant in this song. 4/5
Daybreak
The wierd, almost hypnotic opening of this song is a lead into a really good, yet slow song. It keeps building up and up till eventaully, about four mins throug, it explodes with big epic guitars. A cool song, but it lacks a little something from the vocals i think. 3/5
Just Want To Live
A great song, starting out with the guitars, then the rest of the band come in,and soon turninf into a mini masterpiece. The bass and vocals excel on this song, and the piano playing doesnt get annoying unlike in some other songs. The complexity of the song is greater that others on the album too which makes it a great one to see live too. With this song you can see the band going far. 5/5
Step Into The Light
The most annoying thing about this song is probably the over done synths that are too prominent in the verse and just make the chorus sound to over crowded. Apart from the synths this song is a good song, good rythm guitar and a nice bass riff set it up well. Another point which i noticed is how in most of the songs the rythm guitar plays the same rythm. 3/5
Coming Down
Another slowish song, the intro is interesting to listen to. The repetition of the word "where" throughout the first few mins is annoying though. There is also an intersting part, about 1 and a half mins through ,where it suddenly picks up the tempo, which is a great bit of uniqueness from the badn. The guitar solo is also excellent and fits in nicely with the overall feel of the song. The end of the song, just piano and wierd drums, is cool too. 3.5/5
Can You Hear?
A cool bass riff kicks this song off in style. It then goes into the intro with a cool little guitar solo. The verses are just a plucked guitar which is pretty good, and then it jumps into an epic piece with lots of anthemic singing of "can you hear?". This is one of the strongest songs and is a really good one to sing along too. 5/5
Elevation
This song is quite upbeat and has a cool acoustic feel to it, but again the synths can get a little annoying after a while. The whole song sounds very much like early U2, with echo effects on the guitars and vocals. This is a great song though, and a cool way to end the album. 4/5
Overall
Overall this album is very good, and has some really good guitar and bass work in it. The drums are steady throughout and the vocals are usally strong. However, the piano and synths are sometimes used to good effect, they also get a little repetitive and annoying sometimes.
Overall it is a strong album and a gret debut......4/5
There you go, my first review
