This Age of Silence

This Age Of Silence is the debut album by Welsh 5 piece band Anterior. With just 2 albums to their name, it’s a shame to remember that they split up in March 2012 as their debut album showed that they were a furiously anticipated band. 2011’s Echoes Of The Fallen solidified this statement but it was their debut album back in 2007 that had any fan of metalcore/melodic death metal frothing for more.

Anterior weren't like most of the other metalcore bands. They had a firm respect to their music. Whilst other metalcore bands such as August Burns Red and The Devil Wears Prada where fretting over whether their skinny jeans would tear during their tedious breakdowns or if their hair was floppy enough to windmill with, Anterior (along with Sylosis) mount the ‘scene’ metalcore tag and were fucking it sideways. This Age Of Silence thus was a sigh of relief and thrust Anterior high and above their peers.

The quacking Ghosts Of Dawn sets the tone until hammer meets steel in The Silent Divide and the annihilating double bass kick the debut off into masterful proportion. The slamming riffs are instantly lovable and the agitated pace steams on throughout the entire 6 minutes-even the beating breakdown seems restless. Days Of Deliverance follows the same dynamics. Bold and powerful riffs send your head spinning into an electric aura with Luke Davies commanding vocals at the helm however behind the fast guitars are also slower melodies providing a natural balance between chaos and comfort.

Two of the songs are instrumental so in essence this makes the album 7 songs-of stunning proportions-and the talent behind Leon Kemp and Davies’ guitar playing is the real pinnacle of it. Bold and powerful riffs constantly shine throughout the 45 minutes and are undeniably cohesive against the rhythm in vocals and other instruments. The guitar does steal the spotlight from the bass during Human Hive whereby the hooks buzz uncontrollably like a bee on acid. Zakk Wylde squeals and Dragonforce-speed solos seat themselves amidst the angry snaps in the vocals. Seraph is also jam-packed full of riffs heavy enough to sink a battleship.

Anterior have a subtle progressiveness about them that peaks on occasion in This Age Of Silence. They are the only times you’ll get to catch your breath. The mid paced rally turns into a vortex of guitar hooks during Dead Divine but between the thunderous storms come a moment of calmness. The elastic squeals echo throughout the stillness. The interlude then tie seamlessly in with the crashing drums and the song essentially ends how it started. Scar City also has a brief moment of progressiveness that is mainly used to heighten the ecstatic solo once more. If Anterior embraced their progressive side more to break the songs up instead of relying on the trusted explosions of rage then these sparks of energy would admittedly not seem so expected in this album.

At the time of writing this Anterior are sadly no more, calling it quits after just 2 albums. This debut album is an absolute monster within a genre of generic, faceless clone bands. There's nothing overly original here, just a top class performance from a young band that had a lot of promise. This album straddles the border between melodic death metal (the Arch Enemy style) and metalcore (minus the clean singing). Basically it's a lethal combination of epic riffs, massive guitar solos, pounding drums and intensely screamed vocals with a few breakdowns and inaudible bass, with a fairly typical modern production.

I'll start with the obvious highlight which is the mesmerizing lead guitar work. Leon Kemp plays like a virtuoso, only without the excessive showing off. The solos are blazing and not just in the obvious places, bringing a range of techniques and a good blend of melody and flair to the album. Listen to the colossal solo in 'Dead Divine' building up gradually until he lets rip with some serious shredding. 'Human Hive' and 'Seraph' also have scorching solos but so do most songs on here. It's a shame the band broke up just because this guy deserves to be treated as a guitar god!

Luke Davies handles the vocals and rhythm guitar on this album although he only sings live. The two guitarists link well with some quality riffing and minor use of breakdowns. His rhythms sit well beneath Leon's lead work. Vocally, the positives are that he doesn't use obnoxious clean vocals like most metalcore bands. The downside to this is that his screams are quite repetitive and monotonous. However, the album is dominated by guitar work and has 2 instrumentals so the vocals aren't overbearing.

Bass is pretty much non-existent. No more to say.

Drums-Lots of double bass. Not massively varied but the drums sit well within the song structure and the double bass is used well in particular. The previously mentioned 'Dead Divine' is incredible, the structure of the song is perfect as the frantic drums come in and out at just the right moments under the epic solos and harmonies. The drum production is a particular highlight as the sound is powerful without being dominant.

Negatives: Vocally limited, no bass which is typical of modern extreme metal, and only 9 songs (2 of which are short instrumentals). Basically 7 proper songs and 2 or 3 of them go on slightly too long. Bloody good effort for a debut album though and they improved all of the above aspects on the second album, so lessons learned from experience.

Fans of obscure, underground metal or elitists probably won't like this. Despite being extreme metal, it isn't overly extreme and has a polished production. Miles better than any metalcore band and superior to pretty much every melodeath band still active, this is absolutely worthwhile for fans of those styles. If you were an Arch Enemy fan who thinks they've got stale and repetitive (like me) this will revive your faith in that style.

Recommended listening: Dead Divine, Days of Deliverance, Scar City, Seraph

Anterior’s debut Age of Silence is an excellent album especially considering the technical mastery that all the band member’s exert throughout this release. Anterior formed in 2004 and released this debut in 2007 it’s an eyebrow raiser because of its very high quality material. I have never heard a melodic-death metal album that focuses so much on the actual melodies, frequent and extended solos. This Age of Silence is unique and very entertaining throughout, and has little weaknesses. Most of the songs are fast paced melodic death metal songs with mid-tempo parts and many melodic/shredded solos.

The album opens up with the short instrumental Ghosts Of Dawn which fades in with multiple death metal break downs, then changes into a more melodic repeating riff to finish the song. Then enters The Silent Divide which instantly hammers you into oblivion with a fast paced finger tapped lead riff, the fast tempo continues for the rest of the song with many alternating riffs and solos. The formula is pretty much the same for the rest of the album except for the all acoustic instrumental Stir of Echoes which also adds some atmosphere to the album. Fortunately each song has its own identity, well places solos, and riffs that pummel yet are also very melodic.

The band member’s all contribute something great even the vocalist who fortunately does not sing the usual whiny melo-death clean vocals, but screams away. The member who truly gives his all is the excellent lead guitarist Leon Kemp, he has so many excellent leads, and solos he is definitely of Virtuoso quality. Unfortunately weaknesses are present on This Age of Silence. Luke Davies screaming is solid but not much variation is heard in his vocals, though he makes up for it with his excellent guitar skills. Another problem is that the songs could have used some more audible bass lines from James Britton. Finally the drumming is solid and skillful but my focus is much more on the guitars so I can’t give you a very detailed account for the drumming.

This Age of Silence is an excellent debut from a band with a very bright career ahead of them; it will certainly be very hard to top this album. In essence this is what melodic-death metal should sound like. The best songs are The Silent Divide, Dead Divine, Human Hive, Scar City, and Seraph. I can’t wait for Anterior’s next album to come out I will definitely buy it. If you are looking for excellent melo-death that’s actually original and very entertaining look no further, this is certainly the album for you.

-2 points Luke Davies vocal performance
-3 points Bass lines are not very audible (A very common problem with extreme metal)

A not-so-shabby album made by a relatively new death metal band. Although the way they planned out each song was very simple in a way; and at a good pace; this gives me the impression of dedication and hopefully upcoming content. On the other hand, even small other features like the song names or even the name of the album gave a better meaning to what this band wanted to say.

As I see it, this album truly shows potential of how any new death metal band can start out. The vocalist also plays part in guitar; this shows extra effort put in by the front man; Luke Davies. The vocals were well adapted to both the speed and sound of the guitar. One can make out the lyrics easily through reading them; this even goes on to show ability.

Not one of the best death metal bands as yet; but I hope that they can come up with more content. Some parts were a bit repetitive and very similar from some other well known bands. This shows they know who they are up against, and also, some influence so that they have an idea of how to make better music.

If we had to take any negative aspects; the only things I can hear is that they are not well known, and sometimes the lyrics can be a bit distorted; but this death metal and would happen. Apart from vocals, some of the songs start with the same beat and then pause to make way for the vocals; a common method to show transition; but as I said before, it’s a common feature in other bands. Anterior needs to work on making more content like guitar solos, as only a few songs had one; but not every song needs one to give its full meaning.

It would also be nice if maybe these guys took more time in planning out their music more; sometimes even the guitar solos would be going nowhere, although they gave a nice shriek. Also; the use of acoustic riffs was a short break between one idea and another; and this is what I personally like to see in new bands: new content. Anyway, to make one more point, the best songs in this album in my opinion were: "Human Hive" and "Seraph". These songs both contribute aggression and some level of play which you might only find in experienced bands.