The HELL?! That was the first four letter word I thought about when first assaulted by the atrocity of Silent Rage's "Four Letter Word". Whoever was the bloke that penned this in a press release as being a "natural progression from their "Don't Touch Me There" CD" (barf) is either deaf, insane, or had never heard Silent Rage's previous material in the first place. SR was an excellent melodic rock band that could have been compared to Danger Danger and other similar sounding rock acts from the 80s. They also had a boon in their vocalist, Jesse Damon, who turned in some great vocal performances on their material.
 
The first two Silent Rage albums are somewhat classics now, especially that "Shattered Hearts" release. "Four Letter Word" is *nothing* like that. Nothing at all. Yet, there had been a fairly obvious hint in the past that something like this could come to pass. Just look at their less than stellar comeback album, "Still Alive" and ponder that for a moment. The majority of that album bordered on garbage (although it did include the magnificent "When the Night Is Over"), but was still heads and tails above this mess... 

...and what a mess it is!! Here they have opted to switch around vocalists, and that's an absolute shame considering the quality of Damon's voice. He is a natural born singer has been blessed with a voice that was made for this type of music. Even though the band was known for switching singers around mid album, the other guys are just not competing with Damon, and being on the same disc as him, they sound like a batch of amateurs trying out for a spot in a high school band.
 
The production doesn't have the full bodied feel of their Paul Sabu helmed discs. "Still Alive" suffered problems in the production scheme of things, but not to the extent as "Four Letter". Gilby Clarke has given this album a raw, garage sound that is just terrible. Flat, tinny, and more like a half hearted demo disc than a polished full release. The complaints don't end there. The songs are also crimes against humanity and anyone that is coerced into listening to this steaming pile is going to be incredulous or disappointed.  

Take "Man or Machine" for instance. A hollow sound is the least of its problems. The robotic effects put on the vocals are laughable, the music is a churning industrialized cacophony of cheese and the lyrics are the stuff that is just tailor made to poke fun at. Ridiculous. "You Could Be the One" has issues, but the vocals just sink it. Where's Jesse when you need him? The bridge is broken, the chorus is grating, and the whole affair is a stinking disaster.
 
"Four Letter Word" is much better, a punky rock bit of a track that has alot of energy. The background vocals are downright silly though, since they do not mesh with the music at all. A disjointed mangling of a song that has promise. Unfortunately, all those promises are broken. "Feel My Love" starts off sounding like a 70s Foreigner track, continuing in a smooth arena rock style right on into the bridge. It's a nice vibe that fits the raw, unpolished open air approach to the production. Then there's the chorus, exposing this horrific KISS-ish hand claps and enough cheese to choke a mouse. And mice like cheese.  

"Close Your Eyes" is wanting to be a smokey ballad. It almost makes it, before the overall sound just squeezes the life right out of it. Nice enough for a sketchy demo, but as music for the masses? No way. "Sinister Man" tries to be Danzig or something, but just fails. The heaviness and rough messy vocals just ruin it. Not that there was much here to try and redeem in the first place.
 
"Hard Habit to Break" has an unpolished charm. The chorus could have been huge, instead it's flatter than a pancake stepped on by an elephant. The background vocals are so sloppy the singers sound stoned, bored or both. "Nobody Knows" has a killing edge. Growling guitars and gruff vocals, like a hungry, multi fanged wolf. And that huge lupine animal just rips this to pieces. "Bona Fide" and "I'm Not Lonely" are typical modern sounding rock that have potentially nice choruses that just are never allowed to realize that potential.
 
 Finally, "Trouble" is a quick paced rocker kind of in the style of Motley Crue crossed with Guns N Roses, yet not. It's just an abomination too. Which kind of describes the whole "Four Letter Word" experience. If you can even grace it with that. 

What went wrong and who thought this was "good enough" to put out there anyway? It's obviously inferior in every way to nearly *anything* on the market these days. The songs are flat, the production even flatter, the band as a whole sounds bored and uninspired, and the music they are vomiting out is not much better.
 
There are a few songs that could be linked to their "days of glory" (long past) but these suffer from too many other issues to even dream of competing in the rock world in this day and age. No matter how niche it is, there is a wealth of superb releases and next to anything else, "Four Letter Word" seems like a weak demo from a ham fisted group with more stars in their eyes than actual ability. Even though that is not the case, one who was not familiar with Silent Rage's previous body of work would believe this album to be some kind of an expensive joke. Silent Rage were so good. "Four Letter Word" is just shameful. 



Written by Alanna
Monday, July 7, 2008
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Ratings

Alanna: 2/10

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