Review Summary: Crushing debut by the worlds finest up and coming band.
“This Age of Silence” is the debut album from the five piece metalcore band Anterior, released on Metal Blade. However, this is no run of the mill ‘scene’ band that are too busy wondering if their jeans are tight enough and their breakdowns br00tal enough. In fact, these young Welshmen have produced a wonderful debut that mixes melodic death metal and thrash with progressive influences and, ultimately, propelled themselves way ahead of their peers in the process.
There is no doubt that the songs are very well composed, and manage to remain diverse and dynamic, with plenty of memorable hooks that will inevitably result in various head banging antics. The true delight of this album is, without doubt, the guitar work. It is, in a word … magnificent. Blazing fast thrash riffs a plenty, with a great number of wonderful solos splashed around the place. The guitarists Luke Davies and Leon Kemp really showcase their ability here, especially on the more progressive tracks, delivering axe work that could rival even Dragonforce for speed.
“This Age of Silence” opens with ‘Ghosts of Dawn’, a small intro that quickly slams into second track ‘The Silent Divide’, six minutes of metal at its finest. Without pausing for breath, the album then heads straight into ‘Dead Divine’, all rampant bludgering riffery and a huge gear change midway before racing away again in hurricane force. What follows is six more storming tracks that will leave you breathless and wanting more. The replay value is here for sure, these are not tracks to get bored of quickly.
The vocals are like many other high quality metalcore singers and, although often overpowered by the guitar work, complement the music well. The drumming is of a high standard too, not too flashy but interesting and strong enough to help keep the songs flowing.
In all this is definitely an album worth buying for any fan of metal. Powerful riffs, searing solos, catchy hooks and strong drumming all carried out with a maturity that belies the groups age. Basically, a must for fans of technical metalcore, melodic death metal and thrash. And for those metalheads who shake their head in disgust at the ever-increasing tide of generic bands polluting music with their rehashed garbage, make sure you don’t let the metalcore stereotype put you off. If you do you will be missing out on a slab of modern metals finest.
Recommended Tracks:
- The Silent Divide
- Dead Divine
- Seraph
