Young Belgian band Before Silence have released their debut full length album, 'The Ultimate Nothing', and were courageous enough to do it by themselves. There was a lot of promise in this band, some of which they now have claimed with this release.

I've been listening to Evergrey from Sweden a lot since the beginning of the year. I didn't notice similarities between them and Before Silence before I spinned 'The Ultimate Nothing' twice, even though I got BS's debut demo last Autumn. Before Silence perform technical dark heavy metal with prog and symphonic influences, and especially three first songs on this debut album have a lot in common with Evergrey. Heavy riffing, gothic synths and unique vocals. JC Marchal's mid-register voice might not be very powerful, but it's individual and good, and he uses it well enough. Towards the end these Evergrey influences decrease, and Before Silence start to sound more individual. Well, another band these Belgians bring to my mind are Symphony X. Some of the songs are too long and the band loses the momentum every now and then, and this is where Mr. Marchal's voice becomes vital, as he takes the control of proceedings. Gothic and baroque synths are too common and I don't personally like about the symphonic influence.

The production is quite good. Guitars could be more biting and sometimes the soundscapes sound a bit empty, even if there seemingly is many things happening. And yeh, points for 'Conan the Barbarian' sample, hehe!

Before Silence still have a long way ahead of them, because some material is uninteresting or heard many times before. Maybe they were a bit too hasty with this debut album. But as mentioned, the band have a lot of potential and it might be any day they fullfil the promise.

Rating: 6- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/05/2006 18:44