ALBUM PREMIERE – Incriminating Silence – VICISSIM
…Incrim (inate) the Silence
I’ve got something a little bit different for your listening pleasure today. Generally, when I say something like this, it’s a way of tempering your expectations as I push bands that purposely eschew anything that has been mixed, mastered, or otherwise produced by anything resembling a competent audio engineer. This is not the case here.
See, way back in the early days of heavy metal, young dudes honed their craft by one-upping the riffs of their favorite rock n’ roll bands. This led to a riffs arms race that culminated in outclassed men with weak riffs wailing about fucking on motorcycles and such. Decades into the future, metal had gone through a series of mutations leading to a number of exciting new prospects like melodic death metal. But roughly five seconds after Carcass birthed it, melodic death metal fell in with a bad crowd. We need not re-litigate it. We all know what happened.
Enter Vicissim, the first full-length from Incriminating Silence. These Eau Clair fellas have fused time and space among the metal continuum to create something that sounds unique among an endless stream of worship bands that gum up the works with this whole metal thing. There is a touch of trad, there’s a dose of melodeath, and there’s not a small amount of what could be considered modern rock n’ roll if modern rock n’ roll still existed.
Opener “By Flame and Steel” is a damn ripper, and a solid introduction to the record. You can hear the trad metal combining with melodeath influences. Above influences, you can hear that this record sounds fantastic. You can hear it in the impeccable tone, the layered vocals, propulsive drumming, and tighter than hell guitar riffage that shines from front to back.
I hate to be that metal dude that doesn’t know shit about anything but guitars, but Vicissim is chock-damn-full of incredible riffs. Hardly a wank-fest, Incriminating Silence deploys the big guns strategically; placing the siqqq liqqqs precisely where they belong. Closing out “Celestial Echoes” you get some tight noodle-age that accurately reflects the song title. Likewise, “Succumb” opens with a staccato dual-guitar and drum pattern that whips hard and leaves me craving even more. Elsewhere, “Succumb” highlights rich bass tone played out with tasteful precision. Vicissim defies simple metal classification. From track to track the record surprises, taking listeners through unique compositions and inviting them to marvel at awe-inducing feats of musicality.
I formally invite you to take a listen to the premiere of Vicissim below and share your thoughts with me in the comments below.
You can pick up the record on Bandcamp tomorrow. Also, go follow Incriminating Silence on Facebook if you haven’t been Zucc’d yet.
