Local Artist Spotlight: The Loudest Silence

Here you'll spot a quirk that I alluded to in an introductory post; my local artist spotlight features a band from Sarajevo, Bosnia. No, I did not relocate to Bosnia, so this band isn't technically "local" to me, but I use the term as they are a band that hasn't hit it big, or that is a relative unknown compared to other bands. In any case, I just discovered The Loudest Silence and was compelled to write my initial thoughts on the band.

The Loudest Silence are an atmospheric symphonic metal band. First off, let me say that this is a spectacular combination. Symphonic metal tends to always lean more toward the power metal or gothic metal type of music, and atmospheric metal often finds its way making its way over to the doom side or out of the metal genre altogether. The way the band melds these two elements together is quite impressive. I half expected the characterization to be one of those occurrences where a band simply tags a ton of genres that have even the slightest iota of influence just to reach more people, but that is not the case here. The first song I listened to, also called The Loudest Silence, showed off the atmospheric element without having metal in it whatsoever. I progressed onto Acheron, which I have included a video below:

One thing that stuck out to me at this point was that I didn't know what to think about the vocals. Taida has a very lovely voice, but it seems to me that at times there is some indecisiveness. My thought is that it is not easy to balance atmospheric style vocals, much like the ones in the song The Loudest Silence, which are lighter and more ethereal, with vocals that have more force behind them like the operatic vocals more characteristic of symphonic metal. I also felt she cuts off her notes early in some instances where she should have held them a tad longer and faded them out. All in all, though, this was nitpicking a little. Once I got to 1:48 in the video was when I really started to appreciate both the instrumentals and the vocals, and these small criticisms subsided as I fell captivated to what I was hearing. Taida keeps going higher and higher with her vocals, and the instrumental work get better and better as the song goes on. The keyboards in particular play such a critical role; not only do they set the overarching atmosphere of the track, but you have the more symphonic parts adding intensity in some sections of the song, whereas in others, Denijal switching the Korg over to other instruments and adding very somber elements to the track.

One last thing that struck me with this band is that they capture metal very well, yet there are still parts of their songs where I could almost see the music having appeal to more mainstream type listeners, despite it not sounding generic. This is very difficult to do, as metal is such a polarizing genre of music. Overall, I think the group has a lot going for them; they seem to take their work seriously in all facets. Their music is terrific, they have a good image and already have some good band photography done of the quintet. They'll continue to grow and perfect their trade, I have no doubt. Their biggest obstacle will be getting their name out there. I really hope that a year from now I can be writing about a big success story coming out of Bosnia! Take a listen and let me know what you think.