"You better believe it's over now.over now." This quote comes from the last song of the album,
"You Are Mine" and also fittingly applies to my long-standing love affair with
Silver. With their fourth and latest album, "Addiction" it is truly over now. But where did things go wrong?
For those not knowing,
Silver is a definite super group, one that has more or less remained intact since they arrived on the scene, which is rare, for these sort of collaborations are one-offs, with maybe a single follow up at best. Gary Barden is back on board handling the vocals, you have likely heard him somewhere as he's been with Praying Mantis, Statetrooper, and most famously with MSG. Michael Voss handles the guitars again from
Casanova and Mad Max, and of course Don Airey on keys of
Whitesnake and
Ozzy Osbourne fame. Tommy Denander even appears as a guest musician. Rarely do we see musicians of this caliber teaming up for four straight discs in a row, and perhaps it would have been better for the band legacy if they had self destructed after "Dream Machines", leaving the world on a high note, a little off the top of their game, but with a rock solid album to depart on nonetheless.
The self titled 2001 debut was a gem, a gorgeous mixing of the modern with a dark slab of melodic rock underneath, honed to perfection with lovely choruses and just the right balance of hard rock and studio experimentation to enhance the album dramatically. "Dream Machines" was a shiny follow-up, focusing more on the rock aspects and taming the wild studio flourishes but still managing to deliver crisp, grade A music that simply wasn't as original but clung on to the basics that made the band so great in the first place. "Intruder" came next, in 2003, and was tedious and not as deserving to be something released under the
Silver name. Too pedestrian and sounding much like everything else out there, it fell off the radar. Hopefully the band would have learned from their mistakes and attempt to take it back to the beginning where all was fresh and enticing.
Instead we get "Addiction", which unlike the first two albums, is more of a chore to listen to than a pleasure, as music should always be a pleasure partaken. The first two tracks keep that breath of hope alive,
"Never Let Me Go" is on point with some unusual keyboards and a strong rhythm that flows the song on, along with vocalist Gary Barden's rich, mesmerizing vocals. The female backup is more for lavish musical design than a prop to support Barden, and a mixing of the velvet and the vixen is one that works especially when blessed with a killer chorus and a bubbling sense of urgency.
Starting off strangely with some Sci-Fi like sounds and a warped rhythm section,
"Angeline" sounds nothing like a ballad until the piano kicks in and Gary's lush voice giving a soft commanding glow questioning himself and his obsession. But it's those keys that make the song, a sprinkling of ivory white crystalline piano that dances over the musical landscape like dewdrops awakening the flora on a shadowed misty morning. Lovely, beautiful and certainly worth being produced under the
Silver name, think of
"Angeline" as the sister to "Christine" from the first album, for that is exactly what it is.
What follows is an exercise in tedium,
"I Saw" being dark and a bit twisted but also a follower of the mundane, there's nothing here to boil the blood or a solid chorus anywhere to be found. It is far too experimental and daring for its own good and therefore not a lot can be discovered within to redeem itself. Prog metal bands are allowed to create such rambling wonders and be called geniuses for it, but in the
AOR game, this is just a strange mixture of sounds with a devastating lack of structure.
"Finish What You Started" attempts to be funk but instead just seems to reek of funkiness. The bass guitar gets a work out for sure, but that doesn't make or break a song when nothing else reaches out and grabs. Barden's voice is made for rock music, not trying to be swinging. The chorus is eye-rollingly bad as well. Maybe this could have been interesting as a bonus track or a B-side, but as prime time material for an album? Abysmal when measured to previously set standards.
A turn to a ballad, and all seems right again,
"Why Did You Come Back" is a drama piece that focuses in on the vocals, the synth in the background for support, but it's the fine sculpting of the words that make the magic. It's a struggle of the heart and the sorting of the pieces of broken trust, asking more questions than finding answers as love often goes, pierced by the agonizing screams of
"Why?? Why did you come back now?" The guitar picks up on the mood and fills the ending with bittersweet emotion as all is left as it is, empty questions stirred by conflicting emotions, and a confused heart abandoned flailing for the elusive answers.
Next up is
"Addiction", a song about drug abuse. As if this hasn't been done before. It's a mid tempo track that never manages to find itself. Repetitive and boring, leaning too heavily on gimmicks than strong choruses or song structure, which is a shame. The most redeeming part of the song is the extended instrumental section that is kicked off with a scratching sound, like that of an old LP record caught in the needle, and then goes off sliding on a tangent filled with guitars, wild Hammond like keys and a funky bass rhythm reverberating in the backdrop to keep pace. The rest of the song is just tedious, unfortunately.
"This Is My Life" is the next to last final redeeming song of the album "Addiction", and even it has its problems. The major difficulty is the song length and the babbling at the beginning of the tune which seems rather unnecessary. And of course the accessibility factor, this is far too dream swept and wandering to trap in a casual listener. After that opening we are sucked into a void of loneliness and left swirling in a pool of dark emotions.
"This is my life, it is the only one I've got, this is my life and I'll never let you have a piece of it again." The sci-fi effects are used expertly, the song is like a seven minute trip drifting through space, and conjures images of Ayreon's progressive space opera "The Universal Migrator: The Dream Sequencer." Guitars float in a gravity-less existence, swirling around aimlessly but with conscious precision, piano rears its head next and is pointedly joined by female vocals soaring single notes, wordless, only the sound of a voice in the void, and then the music simply fades away. I would never dare to even suggest this as being an
AOR song, at its heart it has more in common with Dream Theater's "Space Dye Vest" than the typical structures of the always much sought after power ballad.
"Leaving Tonight" bases itself around an acoustic and stays mostly in that murky midtempo feel that the album clings on to so relentlessly. The chorus kicks things up a notch or two but the song chokes on its own length, which is far too long at six and a half minutes, and Gary sounds like he's just going through the motions with the vocal performance. Flat, and uninteresting vocally, and that should be one of the main draws since everything else is fairly generic and predictable.
Just
"Breathe". Some may find this to be ridiculously lifeless and skip on to the next track (which is dismal I will add), but within the darkness there is much more to be discovered, especially on repeated listens. Slow and caressing, a notch above plodding, keeping its head right above the water from drowning, instead they drown the listener in a depressive darkened and desperate concoction of emotions. There's not a moment that lifts you into bliss, the mood is heavy, weighed down. The vocals come off being saddened but with a flame of hope left burning within. Mostly piano and vocals, but that in itself is more than enough.
"I'm waiting for something out in the cold air.cold November rain."
"You Are Mine" is a poor choice to end on, dreadfully long with a touch of disco but not of the dance grooving kind. Some tweaking, trimming and bit of infectious injection could have turned this into something special, but the song needs a lot of work and thus feels more like a burnt out over extended demo than a track on the album. Maybe they just needed one more to fill things up and this is what was left over from the recording session? Who knows, but it doesn't do anything but be upbeat, which the disc seriously needed. Alas it is far too tedious to revisit anytime soon for one might go mad when faced with its redundancies.
So what are we left with? Two songs that will light the fires in those that do enjoy melodic
AOR type rock, and three other moody atmospheric songs that will interest those that are
Silver devotees or have the patience and penchant for progressive influenced almost-ballads. Only one of these songs is the kind of addictive uptempo rock tune that this band always managed to make something special out of, and even it pales in comparision with past efforts like the song "
Silver" or "Pretender". The ballads are nice, relaxing and explore darker depths but never capture the purity of emotion such as the quick blink and you miss it magic of "
Silverous" or the breathtaking glimpse of "Walk the Stage", a reworking of a tiny portion of MSG's Barden fronted classic "Rock Will Never Die". These sort of heights are not ever achieved on "Addiction" and nearly every attempt at an upbeat track flails and fails buried in heaps of pointless experimentation with sound effects and flat choruses that are barely there.
As much as I like the ballads on this disc, half of a CD does not make a classic nor does it garner a high recommendation. This group can do better, and have in the past as a team, and also as separate entities. My blind love affair with the band has certainly been burned to ashes at this point, but high expectations are held for disc number five which will undoubtedly be rearing its silver hued head in 2005, if they keep up on track with one disc every year. Surely these seasoned musicians will take a cue from all that has fallen apart here and piece it back together for the next go-round. Until then, this is worth a brief glimpse for the ballad-esque trips into the heart of depression, but if it's energetic, quality
AOR you are seeking, you better search elsewhere, because that is something not to be found contained within this "Addiction". Disappointing all around, with ugly cover art to boot.
Written by
Alanna Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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