Even though they feature members of the mighty Bane and Drowningman, Silent Drive aren’t the teeth-meltingly heavy metalcore band you might expect. ‘Love Is Worth It’ is that most rare of beasts, a truly diverse and eclectic album. Even though SD don’t come close to being able to be put into one single genre (and gosh, isn’t putting bands into a specific genre SUCH FUN?!) there’s a conscious thread running throughout ‘Love…’ that manages to always remain close to a brooding sense of something big.
Size is definitely a factor here, since even on the seemingly stripped-back ‘American Classic’ there’s a real depth to Silent Drive‘s sound that really hearkens back to the pioneering Faith No More. Zach Jordan’s vocals really remind me of Patton on this track too with an enduring nasal quality but that’s not to say that they stay constant – on ‘4/16’ he’s barking like rottweiler in a tied-up sack that calls to mind Million Dead while ‘Davey Crockett’ succeeds due to the alt-country twang in Jordan’s voice. Confusing, eh? Not quite. What’s crucial is that not once do Silent Drive sound contrived or hackneyed, even in the harshest conjunctions like ‘Davey Crockett’s chiaroscuro between light harmony and elephantine metal crunch.
‘Henpecked’ takes a more familiar punk route, with rolling backbeat and scratchy guitars pushing the song towards a venomous conclusion, whereas ‘Boyfriend Notes’ builds gradually on a pure Opeth bent before riding home with an expectant snare drum feeding into an extended outro. It’s songs like this one that contrasts perfectly with the manic hardcore riffing of ‘Banana Rejection’ without jarring, and that’s admirable for Silent Drive to be able to combine so many different sounds without sounding like cut and paste merchants.
‘Love Is Worth It’ is an inventive album that pushes metal, hardcore and reflective Opeth-style guitarwork together in a big ol’ pot and turning up the heat. There’s a strong sound throughout that has been impressively captured by the producer Bill Stevenson (Descendents sticksman) and that endures no matter whether Silent Drive are ripping out the metal or firing through some frantic hardcore. This might not appeal to some people sine those who dislike either metal or hardcore will find the marriage perhaps too much to bear but fans of both styles would do well to hunt this little gem down.
Ben
www.silentdrive.net
www.equalvision.com