Death - Pierce Me

This is the album I respect the most in all of metal. I revere it so much, in fact, and I hold it in such high esteem, that it almost seems infantile for me to want to type out a review for it. To actually dare to put the enormity of my feelings and emotions about this album on a document, and then out for anyone to see. Am I disrespecting myself? Am I disrespecting the band? What good are my worthless words when put against a creative achievement of this caliber? Will they ever be good enough? I feel foolish for even thinking what this piece makes me feel holds any distinct value in the first place. Yet, I know I’m not wrong. I have to do this. I am compelled. I cannot stand idly any longer and let hordes of absolute posers with emetic taste deface and demerit this legendary outing. Yeah, that’s right. They’re the ones being disrespectful, not me. I’m just doing what I felt the call to do.

From the first opening chords and the few words being spoken in the background, Death – Pierce Me is slowly dragging you into its world, whether you know it or not, whether you want to or not. The slow descent into the abyss is accompanied by marked percussion, reiterated melancholy, and a foreboding atmosphere. Once you are accustomed to it, you are greeted with the shock that is the ruler of the new dimension you’re in. The soul-piercing shriek, or wail, that will never stop amazing and shocking me. I was feeling tense in anticipation for it, and the guitars that are now surrounding me let me know I am in deep shit. The screams are now a constant, and so are the drums. Planted firmly into black metal territory, this is unlike anything else in the genre, however. I increase the volume in my headphones. The sheer emotion of those echoed screams, pure agony and dissatisfaction being distilled, and your body freezing over. Has the sadness taken control yet? No, you’re still being tormented by alarmingly high, ear-piercing screams. You’re in Nattramn’s world now. Your being is absorbed by his tortured anguish, and you’re going to remain prisoner for the entirety of the album. The lone piano, the emotional honesty of your own sadness. You think you’re invading his privacy. You dared step into his realm, after all. This is getting too personal, too real. Yet, that’s when you’ll come to realize it’s actually yourself. He’s holding up a mirror, and you’re the one in it. The negativity, the madness, the uneasiness, the coldness, the disgust, the apathy. Wake up. His screams are your own mind, your own will to die. You are being manipulated, and it’s working. The roaring guitar riffs, alone against the backdrop of the most helpless and hopeless vocals in all of metal, punctuated by the ever-descending percussion. There’s no doubt about it: if you’ve ever felt like you wanted to die, those feelings are going to be brought to the forefront, and they’re going to confront you. Your facade will be cracked, and ultimately obliterated. And that’s just the first track.

The instrumentation throughout this release blends in so perfectly with the vocals that I cannot think of a more cohesive album. It’s as if the compositions are living beings themselves, and they come alive as you progress through the tracklist and dare to provide breathing room for them inside your skull. The sadness in the vocalist’s voice cannot be understated. These are the most melancholic vocals most listeners will ever come across. He’s angry, defeated, abated, devastated, crushed, broken, sick, demented, and he’s coming to get you. You can put up mental blocks all you want; if you’ve honestly let yourself feel the effects of negative emotions, he’s going to make sure you experience the whole range of them. Even down to the patheticism of feeling that way at all. You feel every single word he’s saying, even if you don’t understand what he’s saying. If you have been there before, that is.

I’m writing this right now in complete and utter darkness, at 4:30 AM, not a soul around, not a sound but the alarming riffs of Tamaklan. It’s as if I’m stuck in a blizzard, or a hurricane, but instead of snow and whatever hurricanes usually transport, all that is around me are the most punishing, most hurtful, most soul-killing sensations. It’s interesting, because I feel like the guitars, as sad as they are, are almost alarming the listener, in a way, constantly, of the negativity he’s being swept under. You are drowning in total bleakness and depression; there, I wrote that. And Nattramn, the absolutely legendary frontman of this equally legendary band, is not letting up. His screams are only going to keep getting higher, more drilling, more honest, more intense, more aggressive, more hopeless, and you’ll feel your heart beating faster as the tempo increases, and slower as your blood starts freezing and you stop wanting to move. Just let yourself be drowned in the utter, masterful blanket of misanthropy and suicidal emotions that these compositions are forcing upon you.

The guttural cough of Nattramn while the guitars seem to be drowning him as well will guide you through the darkness that now fully surrounds you. Only you and him in this space now. The madness has been ignited, and there’s no getting out, and no going back. From the first time you listen to this album, you will be scarred. You will never look at it again, and nothing will be the same. You’ll fear the thought of ever going back to it, but you will absolutely enjoy every second of the experience whenever you ignore those voices in your head, and replace them with Nattramn’s. The screams will torment you until you submit, give up, and surrender.

The scattered ominous, moody quiet passages of this album are so vivid, so cinematic, and so vibrant that I can safely claim I’ve never listened to any ambient that is this effective and causes this much of an emotion in me. As they slowly dissolve and give way to the rest of the instruments and to the lunacy that are the vocals, they’ve already made an impact on you, and you’ll feel them for the rest of the running time down your spine. It’s as if the different strengths and elements of this album are all piling up on you while you listen, and it’s only after you’re done with a track that you can gather yourself and feel the massive effect it all has had on you. Yet, the next track has already started, and you’re inside yet another mountain of sadness. The intensity of the vocals is kept up, and that is, in itself, shocking, seeing how much variation there is. The glitchy loop of spoken words in The Slow Kill in the Cold is as disorienting and disconcerting as the pummeling rhythm that follows it. There’s just no knowing how the album’s gonna continue, and that’s a big part of its brilliance.

It’s honestly mind-boggling, because not only can I not think of an album with this much emotional intensity (that should be pretty obvious), but I also don’t think a black metal album exists that is as proficient in its use of the instruments to create an atmosphere as this one. There are hallmarks of the genre, to be sure, but can any of them surpass the absolute mastery of the elements displayed here? Every single thing that’s happening throughout every track is so slick, so perfectly in place, so devilishly orchestrated, that this is not to be called anything but a masterpiece. Really, I don’t see how anyone can listen to this and not call it such, being honest with themselves. The reason why I adore this album isn’t only for what and how it makes me feel, but also because it’s so damn fucking great in its musicianship, as well. That is one further reason to want to kick myself for enjoying this so much: there will never be anything like it again, ever.

There go the alarms again, but are they sounding in my head as I delve into I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow, or are the guitars themselves letting me know I’m way in over my head already? It’s too late, I am now fully consumed, fully invested in whatever I have gotten myself into by giving this music my undivided attention. When the screams in my head tell me to follow, they shall lead, and I will do so. This will crush your entire being. It will change your personality. It will affect and direct your mood for a long time. It will dictate the way you look at existence. If you let it. That’s why he’s laughing, because you’re now his slave. You’ve fallen for the trap. You ignored the warnings, and now it’s too late.

The tempo changes throughout this album make it feel like a new chapter of torment is opening up. The way the screams fade out and in again throughout track to track, and even in one single track, is almost nostalgia-inducing. You will start to reflect on the landscape that has been painted throughout, and you will fall in the trap time and time again. Each time getting deeper in the mud that are the razor-sharp emotions of Nattramn, which are really your emotions. That’s why the album cover not only sets the mood and atmosphere perfectly for the album, but also for what it is. This pain, this sorrow, this regret is all being felt through you, and your own negative feelings will surely flourish together with the music. DREI BLINZELN KAPITÄN, NEIN NICHT NOCH EINMAL.

The closing piano instrumental seals the deal after the tempestous torment that is this album. You are thrown back into life, after having been at the depths of suffering and torment. You have been toyed with, and your fate has been sealed. You have been pierced, and life awaits, until you meet death (again). Can you live with that?

Silencer, Nattramn and DSBM as a whole are three major topics you'll find shrouded in mystery and controversy. Reports of bloodshed at live concerts (Shining), a musician's brother driving an axe through the skull of a 5 year old girl (Silencer), album covers depicting real self harm and suicide shots (the vast majority of artists), amongst many others. DSBM is both enigmatic and boisterous, being un-afraid of exploring the darker fabrics of human psychology, and this is exactly what Death - Pierce Me achieves: The story of a deranged man, trapped in his own mind, longing for his own demise while expressing seething hatred for humanity. The review I'm about to put together may be lengthy, so strap in and prepare.

We're greeted by a melancholic opening track on the title song, "Death - Pierce Me" that carries on for a good couple of minutes, setting the tone for the rest of this album. The acoustic solo trudges on, creating a whirlwind of emotions for the listener to digest. And then, we're greeted by the tortured wail of Silencer's notorious singer, Nattramn, followed by some incredibly frostbitten black metal riffs. This brings me to the guitarwork. The riffs displayed on this album are more on the traditional side of 2nd wave black metal, except there's MORE melancholy thrown in, and the atmosphere surpasses that "cold" feeling and just goes into pure schizoid territory, which represents the absolute insanity this album oozes. It's a depressive ride into the mind of a suicidal man, but the riffs are also quite hard hitting and they pack a punch. Once the chaos takes a break, we're treated to moments of melancholic serenity, which is somewhat calming yet still frightening. My favourite example is the mid-section of "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow". It's haunting and it's beautifully crafted, it's enough to invoke tears. Speaking of the latter song, the main riff is intense in a lot of ways, and given the song's subject matter (about the gruesome reality of Nazi occupied Poland during the 1939 invasion), it makes me think of the absolute horror that took place during those events. I don't necessarily think the song is "anti-Semitic", it's more a monologue of a gruesome and horrific time in history.

As for the drums, they're very much on par with the stylings of funeral doom metal rather than traditional black metal, often providing slower beats and the odd blasts that go with the colder bm riffs. The percussion is quite formidable during the slower, melancholic driven sections too, showing off a rather somber performance that outweighs the more chaotic stylings. When it comes down the vocal performances, holy shit, even to this day I'm still terrified. Nattramn probably has the scariest banshee wail, and that's only second to Landfermann from Bethlehem. Nattramn shrieks, howls, hisses and wails his way through each song, and the reason why? The guy was literally slashing himself during the recording process with a fucking knife. A lot of people find the vocals unlikeable, and that's why it makes this un-easy listening, because these aren't vocal meant to impress or wow people, they're meant to make you feel disgust, sorrow and bitterness. In some parts as well, it seems Nattramn has moments of incredulousness when he starts cackling and letting out a few low growls for extra effect, however these are very sparse.

Lyrically, these aren't for the faint of heart, as the lyrics revolve around suicide, dejection, self harm, misanthropy, death and other morbid topics. Even the lyrics in the title song have Nattramn literally begging to be raped and killed. The lyrics in "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow" are often coined as "anti-Semitic", more because of the lyrics revolve around the killing of Jewish people and speaks of the Nazi invasion of Poland. Personally, I believe this is more a monologue of the atrocities, and is meant to be done from a story telling perspective. But that's what makes for effective lyrical writing, it's interpretive.

The verdict of this album, is that it's an important piece in black metal history, especially for this off shoot of the genre. It takes you on a journey you never thought you'd go on, and it's really telling of the darkest side of human psychology. By no means easy listening, but definitely worth a listen if you love the dark areas of extreme metal.

Silencer has always been an interesting band to me as knowing they only had one album that I never heard, until today.. and oh boy, this is not gonna be the best review for this album. As for those looking for DSBM and other better albums, I recommend you don't check this one out. Just leave it to be with Leviathan or any other DSBM artist. For those just getting into black metal or the DSBM scene, I still wouldn't recommend this as some kind of joke.

The first thing when going into this album was the immediate notice of some of the instrumentals on the tracks. When going back through a second time, it was the only thing I enjoyed the entire time.. and it wasn't even all the instruments. In terms of the instrument playing on this god forsaken album, the guitars are alright in this case. A good few riffs here and there, but nothing special; it gets real special though when we start talking about the bass though - what the hell were they thinking with the bass in this album? Most of the time when listening, it almost sounded like static in the background, ruining what was the atmosphere it was trying to go for. Worst part about this is that it's not only the bass that was bad, the drums weren't the best either.. most simply because you can barely hear them it seems. To brighten this up a bit, I will say that the piano parts in some of the songs like the title track were not half bad.

Now, I was going to include the vocals in the last section, but I felt like it needed to be separated into its own paragraph. The vocals on the album are horrendous. Period. The entire time, I was laughing at the fact the vocals sound like they were parodied by some low-grade grindcore vocalist.. but no, the vocals on this album were not in fact some type of comedic parody. To compare the vocals to those who have not listened to the album just yet, I would say if the yellow angry bird got into a bucket of cocaine before recording the vocals in a rotting shed. Good lord, who let these vocals on this album..

Finally, to conclude the review of this musical war crime, a few thing I wanted to point out as well before and after listening to the album. First thing is the songs, with the most infamous being "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow". The song in particular talks about antisemitism, which is an immediate no-no for me. Worst part about it is how blatant it is.. it's disturbing how out there he gets with it too. Another thing I wanted to point out is the album cover.. as I think it's the best part of the album, sadly.

I give this a 20%. Yucky.

Here it is, "Death - Pierce Me" by Silencer, the band that has more myths surrounding it than the songs it wrote. As always, I won't be paying any attention to the sp00ky stories of how Nattramn allegedly cut himself while recording this album or killed a girl with an axe and ended up in a loony bin, I am here for the music.

The musical style of the album is rather intricate. Nattramn's vocals mercilessly piercing your ears (you get the joke, don't you?) are no way near traditional DSBM rattling whisper or sobbing shrieking. Due to their phantasmagorical sound, they don't even seem sad or depressed. Instead, they are... insane. Yeah, that's the word that would fit his style more than anything. Most of the time he just squeals the abstract lines varying between actual darkness ("I am what you deserve,/Death do me submerge", "Needles, injecting pain/Flammable skin/And deadly thirst") and excessive pretentiousness ("I am.../The silverhawk,/The razorking,/The cosmic observer,/The galactic crusader,/The eater of thoughts") in agony. While this style is definitely not for everyone, I find it unconventional and, well, impressive (not many vocalists can scream like this).

Just like the vocals, the instruments are good. The guitar sound is very clean, which doesn't prevent it from sounding emotional and tense (especially at the start of the title track and on "The Slow Kill in the Cold", where the lead and the rhythm guitar combine to form a truly atmospheric sound). The energetic drums (also very clean) alongside the occasional keyboards and acoustic guitar also add to the album's emotionality.

Speaking of the album's riffs, I wouldn't say they are particularly amazing. Rather, it's the guitar tone and the insane vocals that make them remarkable. The songwriting is good, especially on "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels" and "Taklamakan", where various parts of the song concentrated on different emotions and moods are nicely merged together.

The best thing about the album is probably its consistency. The songs don't feel too long or uniform (personally I deemed the piano outro "Feeble Are You - Sons of Sion" unnecessary, but the rest of the songs are fine at least and cool at most). The record has numerous notable moments, such as Nattramn's first scream, the intro riff and the… breakdown? of "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels", the outro of "Taklamakan" or the synth intro of "The Slow Kill in the Cold". The sound doesn't lose its power over time, nor does the songwriting.

So, while "Death - Pierce Me" certainly isn't able to compete with the melancholic trance of "Soundtrack for a Suicide - Opus II", the engrossing sound of "Subliminal Genocide" or the pure despair and mind-blowing (both metaphorically and literally (you know, when you shoot yourself in the head, you kinda... blow your mind... Alright, I will stop)) riffs of "Dipsomania", it is a very unusual album for DSBM and definitely doesn't deserve the hatred it sometimes gets. It is not the best album in the genre, but it's certainly among the most remarkable and eerie ones.

Well, I figured it was about time I covered arguably one of the most controversial black metal bands in the post-second wave black metal world, and there's no doubt about it that the Swedish DSBM band Silencer has this one in the bag. In their six year lifespan, they've only released a one song demo and a six track album titled "Death - Pierce Me" before calling it quits shortly after. And yet, even after over 20 years of the album's release, Silencer still remains talked about for the polarizing release of their only album. Where I stand on this issue? Well, I will admit that it has some problems, but that hasn't stopped it from being a good DSBM release in my opinion.

So how does this album stack up quality wise? Well, first, we'll take a look at the instruments. The opening track "Death - Pierce Me" opens up with a nice sounding acoustic guitar that plays a calm, yet dark tune. This goes on for over a minute before the rest of the instruments kick in, which is where the depressive madness truly kicks in. The guitars are very raw sounding and tuned deep, so the repetitive riffs it plays is more impactful in its depressing sound. The drumming, done by Steve Wolz, is decent, though I kind of wished he offered a bit more variation in his beat patterns. Nevertheless, they still beat powerful enough to lead the track. The bass is also more audible than many other black metal albums, and its deep, thick sound is only fitting to the sorrowful atmosphere of the track. The first track is very strong at its depressive atmosphere, especially with a piano playing yet another sad tune in the middle of the track. There's even a bit of diversity in the execution of this sound, such as "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels" having a more epic-orientated sound, or "The Slow Kill in the Cold" even incorporating some cold synths that truly enhance the coldness of the atmosphere. When it comes to the instrumentals, this album has some fantastic riffs and drumming that is sure to make you feel down.

However, that's not really what makes this album special. Enter Nattramn, who is probably one of the most deranged musicians of all time. According to the folks of the Internet, Nattramn cut off his arms and replaced them with pig arms, and practically mutilated himself during the recording of the album. There was even a rumor that he nearly killed a 5-year-old girl with an axe before attempting to commit suicide via police, though that has since been debunked. However, that's not even the most disturbing part. Like, if you're a black metal fan like me, you'd know how it usually utilizes shrieks to add in to the unsettling vibe. Well, let's just say Nattramn decided to go above and beyond here. To see what I mean, let's look back at the opening track. The vocals are shrieks, but they aren't typical. When Nattramn shrieks, he shrieks like a literal madman. He sounds completely agonized and tortured, and the extension of the shrieks only further paint a detailed portrait of a man that's gone off the deep end and ready to end it all.

And this is where most of the dividing opinions stem from. Some people say that these vocals are the pure essence of DSBM, while others say that they're enough to completely kill off their enjoyment for this album. For me, personally? I'll admit that these vocals took a bit getting used to. However, one thing I'll give Nattramn credit is in execution and creativity. I mean, it take a lot of vocal effort to produce such feral and bestial shrieks, and to this day, there really isn't much more of this type of vocal style. Not even in the more chaotic realms of DSBM. And the fact that he can still maintain that consistent sound throughout the entire album is spectacular. Overall, the vocals on this one are crushing, merciless, and tortured in every sense of the definition, and it makes the vocals of early Burzum albums sound nice in comparison.

However, when it comes to the lyrics, that's where things take a bit of a dive. Now, this isn't to say that the songwriting here is terrible, but I feel like some more could've been done with them considering the nature of the album. Take the lyrics to "Taklamakan" for example, where this verse quotes:

They are infected,
They are torn,
They are rejected,
They are born
Are they forlorn? Yes! They are forlorn

Basically, Nattramn shrieks that the masses are infected and forlorn. In terms of the technical songwriting, it is very basic, and there's not a whole lot of specifics that go on in the story. However, it is mostly made up with the instrumentals and vocals, as the raw depressive style of the riffs adds in a melancholic tone in the story, and Nattramn's maddening vocals only further push this idea through. But while most of the lyrical content is okay, one particular track, "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow", has some rather bizarre lyrical choice to say the least. The lyrics starts off fine with creatures and space. However, as that goes on, this verse pops up:

The consumption of six million stars,
Cyclonic winds in septic wars
Shed are the blood of Jewmans,
Slay the Lion of Juda,
Revive the night of crystals!

The six million stars line is in reference to the Holocaust, which killed six million people, and two lines later, Nattramn shrieks about slaying Jews. There's no beating around the bush here. This verse deals with antisemitism, and it's done really poorly. Not only does it not make sense logically, but it comes out of nowhere and ruins the whole plot. I mean, you can replace the Jews with Christians or Muslims, and what will change? Nothing. There's also some German lines thrown in at the end, which I guess is suppose to add in some mystery. But like that anti-Semitic verse, you could do without out and not miss anything. While I could more or less tolerate the basic songwriting of depression and suicide, the whole antisemitism in the last track really do bring down the whole lyrical quality.

But even though the lyrics are easily the weakest portion of this whole album, that's not to say that the rest of the album is any less powerful. The instrumentals are very strong at providing a depressive atmosphere, and Nattramn's vocals still remains some of the most brutal and agonized I've ever heard in black metal. After the disbandment of Silencer, Leere would move on Shining whereas Nattramn began working on a dark ambient project called Diagnose: Lebensgefahr. Despite its short legacy, Silencer still remains a staple among the DSBM community, and this is an album I highly recommend you check out.

I can 100% understand the flack this album has received over it's lifetime. It's painfully obvious within the first song to see why people hate this band. The vocals are like a screeching wailing dying animal for 95% of the time.

I'm here to argue that Nattramm is underappreciated as a vocalist. I don't know how many people have listened to this and just wrote it off as hilarious bullshit without attempting to replicate the vocals but I implore you to simply try to emulate it. It's not anywhere near as easy as people make it out to be. He often expels all the air from his lungs and then forces his voice to continue on. I have personally used this technique but to nowhere near the lengths that silencer does. Yes often times the vocals don't really work well and come off as plain funny and suck, but for the most part I am genuinely impressed in his abilities.

While listening to the screeching nonstop can get annoying, he does vary it up and use some different vocal styles/ techniques and shows that he can go low pitched as well. I find this to be one of the main weaknesses of Silencer. I feel like if the high pitched shrieking was cut back some and more of his other vocal techniques were used, this would be held in higher regard and less mocked. It almost comes off as a troll joke sometimes and it's hard to tell whether the band is poking fun at other D.S.B.M. bands, or if the vocalist is genuine and just over the top.

As for all the rumors I think the majority of them are fabricated. I can possibly see the cutting himself while recording vocals thing being true as In his book there are pictures of a foot carved with the word "kaos" on it. Ultimately I think it's overstated and the effect comes off more as someone squeezing their balls to produce a higher pitched voice than someone genuinely harming themselves to produce painful vocalizations.

As for the music it's nothing really stand out, and can even be downright boring in the lighter softer sections. But most of the time it's void diving repetition works for hypnotizing you.

People have called this band anti-Semotic and I certainly see where they're coming from. In the song "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow," the lyrics are "Shed are the blood of Jewmans, Slay the Lion of Juda." I personally see this as being specifically about Jesus in an anti religion way and not really about Jewish people in general in an intolerant way. However, I do not defend this band from the Nazi accusations though because it's not up to me to decide if they hold these beliefs or not.

I think they way you perceive this album depends on the reason you've started listening to DSBM in the first place. Are you a teenager plagued by angst that listens to the first genre he could find with the word "suicidal" in it because being emo is out of style and you need a new scene to make you feel special and edgy? You will hate this album, you will laugh at the vocals and you will write about how the singer sounds like [random character from a piece of pop culture media] in the YouTube comment section because you are a comedic genius. Do you actually suffer from a mental disorder? You will love this album.

I admit that the vocals are off putting at first and they aren't exactly pleasant to the ears. But Nattramns intent was not to record vocals that sound good, he wanted to record vocals that reflect the state of his psyche. The vocals on Death Pierce Me are a perfect representation of the terror, despair, pain and anger that a patient with a personality disorder experiences during a mental breakdown.

Even if the enjoyabilty of Nattramns voice is debatable, there is no denying that these vocals require a huge amount of technical skill to recreate. A great example of his vocal variety can be found in the second half of "I shall lead, you shall follow". There he switches from tortured wailing to incredibly high banshee shrieks, to classic black metal screams and finally to some completely insane semi harshs.

The instrumentals on Death Pierce Me are also extraordinary. Leere is without a doubt a talented songwriter and I think that it is a shame that Nattramns vocals get most of the attention. The riffs on this album are extremely memorable and manage to convey intense emotions, you immediately feel immersed in the psychotic atmosphere of the album right at the sound of the first note.

But what really makes this album shine is the incredibly well done mastering. Thanks to the exceptional talent of Markus Stock, Death Pierce Me is probably the best mixed album in the subgenre of DSBM. Without its clear sound, this album probably would have never gotten the attention it deserved and many black metal listeners would have put it into the same category as all of those badly produced cookie cutter DSBM bands that have invaded their YouTube recommendations section.

If you're looking for an easy listening experience, Death Pierce Me is not for you. It's not something that you can keep playing in the background, you will have to take your time to sit down and actually experience this album. If you're looking for an artistic display of the darkest parts of the human psyche, Silencer will not disappoint you.

Silencer is a one of the most noticeable bands associated with depressive-suicidal black metal. Its only full-length album "Death - Pierce Me" was released at the dawn of DSBM, during the time of popularization of this term. The album has just all needed ingredients to be called DSBM. Stylistically the music of the album is a well-produced piece of black metal, which is performed with even a bigger amount of changes of themes, than it usually happens with black metal. "Death - Pierce Me" is highly influenced by "Dictius Te Necare" of Bethlehem. Silencer completely inherited the style of "Dictius Te Necare", it has the same features, from constant changes of themes and tempo to a manner of performing vocals.

Themes alternate in a psychotic way. Tranquil picking or melancholic keyboard passages can be followed by sudden and fast episodes with black metal tremolo riffing and blast beats. Moods also change constantly, but all of them are connected with despair, melancholy, agony and so on. It means, that the music always reflects the depressive-suicidal concept. The thing is, "Death - Pierce Me" isn't about depression in its most common sense. The lyrics of the album is surreal. It often expresses a will of self-harm and worships death, but majorly it's metaphorical, while those metaphors are grotesque and maniacal. So as the music.

The title track, which opens the album, already has all the mentioned features. From the melancholic picking in its beginning it goes to the intense black metal riffs. And these themes change suddenly, without a warning. The same stuff continues on "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels", which is the best composition of the album. It has absolutely beautiful melodic and mournful episodes, it has brutal and pounding ones, it has fast and intense black metal styled parts as well. "Taklamakan" has a one major change of theme. It's a generally fast and disturbing track, which suddenly concludes with the dismal slow episode, a nearly funeral doom alike one.

Nevertheless, "The Slow Kill in the Cold" and "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow" are more structured and monotonous in comparison to the first three tracks of "Death - Pierce Me". Those three are more psychotic, maniacal and agonal, while these two are more particularly depressing. And the conclusion of the album is a keyboard composition "Feeble Are You - Sons of Sion", which perfectly reflects an aftermath of all the preceding insanity, a sort of an exhaustion after a hysteria.

A one of the main topics of discussion in the context of this album is the vocal performance of Nattramn. Like Leere inherited the style of Klaus Matton's songwriting from "Dictius Te Necare", so as Nattramn inherited the style of Rainer Landfermann's shrieking from the same album. It's an extremely intense way of high-pitched shrieking. Nattramn's vocals are piercing indeed. But also they are variable and artistic. For example, Nattramn masterfully performs the growling alike type of vocals on the brutal part of "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels", after what he provided the prolonged scream, which is followed by the demonstrative gasp for an air. Before the fast culmination of the same composition, which is accompanied by the painful shrieking, Nattramn coughs, as if he prepares for the shrieking onslaught. At the ominous slow ending of "Taklamakan" Nattramn regurgitates, after what he performs yet another shrieking onslaught.

Of course, the are some non-musical aspects of the popularity of "Death - Pierce Me", like a mysterious nature of Nattramn identity and crazy stories about the circumstances of the recording process. Sure, "Death - Pierce Me" brings nothing new, it worships "Dictius Te Necare" music-wise, lyrics-wise, vocal-wise. In any case, "Death - Pierce Me" is a great album, because it's a quality stuff. It doesn't rip off "Dictius Te Necare", it masterfully reconstructs the style of that album. Not just to follow, but to follow in the same convincing way is highly valuable. That's why "Death - Pierce Me" is great like "Dictius Te Necare". "Death - Pierce Me" convincingly represents insanity, agony, a maniacal desire to leap from life, to leave oneself.

To say in metal one has to have a certain tolerance for unorthodox vocal styles is an understatement: from death growls to power metal falsettos, there’s a wide range of stuff most people would find unbearable. So, when you catch a lot of metalheads complaining that Silencer’s Nattramn’s vocals are absolutely ridiculous, that’s a damn red flag. But he’s not alone in his awfulness, as he fittingly complements Leere’s non-existent songwriting skills to form a perfect shitstorm. To get an idea of the issues here, let us take a look at the hilariously-titled “Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels,” shall we?

Its starting, simple melody is not too bad, though it’s actually waltzy and a bit child-like and not in any way “depressive.” It goes for almost a minute before Nattramn shits all over it with his idiotic cackling. Then you have a clean break for no reason and a decent death-metalish riff comes up around 1:34. Here Nattramn’s vocals are actually pretty OK, as he reaches for a lower snarl, and it’s quite catchy in fact. But then it just... stops? After a minute, that good bit goes nowhere, then the music quiets down and Nattramn begins sounding like a demented grandmother getting progressively more hysterical (for the “tasting the fur of dying cats” bit it sure sounds like he took off his dentures or something) as he encorages us to leap from life. All that time the rest of instruments are doing fuck all. Then Nattramn starts coughing and a bouncy jumpdafuckup riff comes up. Are we supposed to leap onto a trampouline? Is that what the song is supposed to say? Because that’s the image it conveys. Then we have a constipated voice saying the song’s title, another unrelated riff and it’s over. Throughout all of its six minutes, it’s all bits and pieces that range from OK to cringe-inducing but never go anywhere.

“Sterile Nails” is the shortest song here and easily the worst offender, its lack of direction failing to create any mood other than unintended hilarity. All others stretch their few ideas over 8-11 minutes. The guitars, though mostly unremarkable, aren’t all bad, as I do appreciate the wall of sound approach they follow, but the songs never ever make any sense. “I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow,” for instance, has a clean break after some minutes of assaulting you with dissonances, but Nattramn still keeps yelling even while the music is quiet, then yells some more when it jarringly gets loud again. “The Slow Kill in the Cold” starts with synths that transition into a slow doomish section before the nonsensical blastbeats start, as if there was a glitch on the drum machine. The title track and album opener has almost 2 minutes of a quiet folkish intro before Nattramn goes AAAAAH like he just accidentally caught his grandpa in the shower, and it just starts blastbeating.

That’s the recurring pattern here: Leere’s playing is generic enough that by himself he could make a pretty mediocre album if he wanted. Occasionally he screws things up by playing something that’s incongruent with whatever mood he is going for (like that bouncy bit in “Sterile Nails”), occasionally he gets something right and stumbles into a decent riff, but has no idea what to do with it as he lacks any sense of songwriting—and all the time Nattramn simply doesn’t shut up. I do grant he’s not always awful, but when he is, it’s just fucking hilarious.

And then we have the lyrics, which come in two flavors: plain stupid and literal nazi. I’m not even kidding. The title track is an example of stupid, as Nattramn just lists the things he wants someone (Death, one presumes) to do to him: “Rip my throat, drink my blood, / Strangle me, drown me, / Give me vain and give me pain”. Edgy teenage poetry, basically. Then you have the really shitty stuff like “I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow,” which I won’t even quote here, you check it yourself. What antisemitism has to do with depressive black metal is beyond me. Does being depressed turn one into a nazi? Is this Burzum’s fault? Did they get a letter in DSBM mixed up? I don’t know.

Those who defend Silencer’s approach to music are quick to allude to Nattramn’s mental illness and the bizarre rumours about him. I get that, we in dark music usually like our frontmen to be a little fucked up in the head, it makes everything sound more legit. There are a lot of problems with that approach, but this is not the place for that type of discussion. My opinion is that any queasiness one feels regarding his vocals and their relationship to madness is roughly similar to the queasiness brought about by John Wayne Gacy’s horrible paintings or Charles Manson’s music as it comes from biographic information and not from any mastery of the art or anything like that.

In fact, if Nattramn really is as chop-off-his-own-hands mad as they say, then, because I don’t like bullying the mentally ill, this album loses the only value it has, which is as a comedy piece to show to your friends and watch their reaction. For anything else, this is utterly worthless. From the nonsensical songwriting to the deafness to mood to the awful vocals and nazi sympathies, Death – Pierce Me is absolutely irredeemable. If you really have an itch to listen to sick music, in its broadest sense, made with the screams of the insane, go after Stalaggh/Gulaggh instead. If you want well made depressive black metal with attention to atmosphere, lyrics and performance, literally any of other bands of the genre that emerged in the early 00’s is better than Silencer. Don’t fall for this silly madness marketing ploy.

Silencer were a depressive black metal band from Sweden. And personally, I think the reason why they became so popular in the underground scene, is because the band were exceedingly different, but with "some" commonality to other bands. I don't care who cries about my review, I already know people are going to be like "Oh, you're an idiot.", "Pfft, that's a joke" or "Oh my god, are you fucking retarded?"...whatever. I'm just going to pretend like I never wrote any of that and if I don't know you're reading this, it's just as simple as that. Also, I'm sure hard-ons or a massive amount of attention comes about when someone sees a review about this album on Metal-Archives, since it has a considerably large amount. I've seen bigger, well-known bands with a lot less than these guys.

Comparing these guys to bands like "Cradle of Filth", "Emperor", "Dimmu Borgir", "Burzum", "Darkthrone" or "Moonspell", is probably frowned upon. But who cares. In a sense, these guys of the band, do share some styles to them. You have the nearly-black atmosphere, with haunting backgrounds of certain musicians and a mystery in their overall musical appearance. Also, the vocalist has disgusting pig limbs in his hands with bandaged hands, probably from depression. I don't know? I'd say Silencer have the shittier background, even compared to Burzum. Since those two bands (especially) have some dark backgrounds.

I'm pretty surprised how well the audio turned out, considering this was a release from the (early) '00's (demo material from the '90's). And even bigger bands didn't have such production back then. How these guys did it, is beyond me. I'm glad, in a sense, that the audio did have such a nice tuning, because it captures so much of the instrumentals of the guitars, bass and drums. The guitar riffs are so well-created, it's like eating dead fish from your local beach (just kidding). They're legitimately good. They produce a powerful chill that only seems available during a clear night with a full-moon in the welkin above. And it has to be in the autumn season to feel the chills of such atmospheric guitar-playing. It's like witnessing a metal version of the original "Dark Shadows" series from the '60's. You're probably too young to remember those times. Don't worry, I am, too. I'm currently young at the time of this review, so shove it up your ass, bitch.

The bass is the driving force behind this considerably-talked-about record, they add such a mystical approach to the album. Since bass is mainly to be felt more than heard, you can really feel the abhorrent evil that lerks behind the guitars beneath the retarded voice of Master Yoda! I mean, Nattramn! Nattramn is who I meant. I remember listening to this band's songs a long time ago for the first time and hearing how comical it sounded and how retarded it was. As the vocals always sounded like a retard who happened to be gagging in the bathroom stall, over the toilet (blowing chunks), it just seemed so demented. But now, I do appreciate the vocals of idiocy. How many children did he frighten at night, knowing he must've been under all their beds with the most fucked, deranged-like vocals? I couldn't tell you either. At least, according to the lore, we possibly have a real-life lunatic here, folks. How fun is that shit?! The vocalist even has a Creepypasta, apparently, too! Check it out, unknown readers!

Some keyboards are featured on this album, too. They don't play a vast role, but they'll do. They do at a blanket of fog to the general concept of this atmosphere at least. It's almost scary. Not like I care anyways. Everything else is holding up considerably, so...you know? Anyways... The drums are well-mixed and mastered throughout the album. I love it. It sounds like you have a guy who knows what he's doing when he's playing. Not like some deadbeat homeless man on drugs, who can't even get his heart to beat on key, you know? Speaking of hearts, the drumming reminds me of tense heartbeats, you know, the kind you get before it starts to hurt and your left-arm goes numb and you begin to worry if your chest will explode from a violent heart attack, yeah, that feeling...in other words, death. The thing that ends you. Duh...

You know, this might sound bad to people, but I rate this weird, interesting-sounding record higher than "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh" (1994) and "In the Nightside Eclipse" (1994), currently. It's not that those albums are bad, it's just harder for me to rate more complex records when they're doing a billion things at once, on each song. With this album being more simple-related and is easier to follow musically. The artwork always, and still does, boggle me... What the fuck am I looking at? Some bald guy looking at himself through a mirror? Or is it deeper than that? Some bald guy looking at himself while holding a victim's severed head up with his bone-y shoulder blade popping out in the corner with his muscle-like flesh being shown underneath? Like, seriously...is this album cover even understandable? Because I never seemed to see it...and I worry I've been viewing it all-wrong, and it's actually something horrifying... Well, to wrap this up. If I see this release in a CD store, I'm buying it. It's just as simple as that. It's delightfully fucked, just like me!

This band.... hooo boy. There's a lot of lore surrounding the band, more specifically the band's vocalist Nattramn. This isn't a review about him, but I'll talk briefly about him. Nattramn is the band's vocalist and is known for apparently cutting off his hands and replacing them with pigs feet, and after the band broke up he went and nearly killed a five year old with an ax. Those claims are dubious at best, but I'll let you believe whatever you want to. Onto the actual content of the record.

As in the format of all things, we begin with vocals. This band has probably one of the most unique vocalists in metal, in both positive and negative regards. I refuse to go the route of "OMG NATTRAMN SUKZZZ" or "HE CONVEYS SO MUCH PAIN" because that's way to easy and it's been done over a thousand times. Nattramn's vocal style is more reminiscent of people like Graf von Baphomet of Psychonaut4, being very high pitched and almost banshee like. Hell, you could actually compare them to Varg Vikernes' vocals from early in his career. But, that's where the praises end. Despite Nattramn being able to keep up the abrasive vocals throughout the track's run time, they become annoying and almost comical by the end of it. It goes from being almost inhuman with the first two tracks to just god awful. The thing that I wonder about the most is why did he go for this banshee scream when he can clearly do a classic black metal scream? Just listen to "Sterile Nails & Thunderbowels", in certain sections you can hear what can be defined as a classic black metal scream. It's just super confusing for me.

From an instrument standpoint, Silencer is not all bad. The bands bassist/guitarist, Leere, is a pretty nasty player and can provide some evil guitar playing. My favorite track instrumentally by him, within Silencer that is, definitely has to be "Taklamakan". The main riff is definitely mesmerizing and provides a nice atmosphere. I especially love the bass intro. Despite Leere being able to play well, he isn't all to invested in the creative department. All of the tracks, besides the last, are all over six minutes in length, and very very repetitive. I guess it comes with the genre, but I can't stop harping on it. The reason for me not mentioning drums is because they used a damn drum machine. When I first learned that I was quite pissed. I have never been a fan of drum machines, as to me, they have been the lazy man's way of getting out of hiring a drummer. Just hire a damn drummer.

This albums production is actually not all that bad. In fact, it is enjoyable. Despite the shittyness of the drum machine, it sounds like someone is actually playing it. The guitars and bass have a very nice sound for a black metal band, most other bands having a lofi mix to them. This band has a very professional mixing that is kind of astounding for a genre full of home-brewed bands with garbage quality. However, the 1998 demo of the same name, Death-Pierce Me, has that classic crap quality that is apparently a thing to strive for. At the same time, it is not as bad as other bands that I've listened to. Good job Silencer, you get a B+ from me in the production department.

Now all positivity that I had is thrown right out the window as this record's lyrics are garbage. For me, the only song that is passable lyrically is "The Slow Kill in the Cold", and it still is not all too good. This album's lyrics were written from 1998 to 2000, and around the same time, bands like Leviathan, Xasthur, and Shining were already making music with much more, inspired lyrics than Silencer here. A lot of the songs are written, lyrically that is, very poorly and do not help keep up the songs in any way. My least favorite song in the lyric department has got to be "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels". I know that a lot of people have harped on this song a lot, but I'll add my own two cents. These are honestly some of the worst lyrics I have ever read in my life. I won't quote them, as they are here on this site for you to gawk at. There we go. I said it, this song sucks.

A bit of a subcategory this time will be song titles. Normally song titles are not anything to write about, but dear god are this band's songs poorly titled. Again, back to the records second track, "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels" has one of the most god-awful titles for a song I have ever read, at all. Isn't this band supposed to convey pain, not make you want to cry laughing? A personal favorite of mine is "Taklamakan". For those that don't know, "Taklamakan" is a desert in China, and it is confusing that a Swedish band would be writing about a hot fucking desert, but this desert has gotten down to -25.7 degrees Fahrenheit. So, bit of a fun fact there.

Anyways, Death-Pierce Me by Silencer is a very hard album to listen to due to a myriad of factors. The most notable issue is Nattramn's abrasive / comical vocal style. It goes, as stated earlier, from being genuinely disturbing to down right awful and hilarious to listen to. One thing that this album suffers from that a lot of black metal acts share is riff repetition to lengthen an album's run time. The record's production is very good for being fronted by only two people. A genuine plus there. Lyrical content weighs this record down HEAVILY with many attempts being laughable, and song titles being comedy gold on their own.

It's difficult to know how to write about this album. It's pointless telling you how it'll make you feel because it seems to polarise opinion to such a great extent. Some of the people who listen to it will probably feel hairs pricking up all over their body, and a lot of others will just laugh at it. It's bizarre.

I first heard the album a couple of years ago - well, I heard the first track, got a few minutes in and had to turn it off, because it was too much. I think I was so affected by it because I'd read about it and heard some of the folklore (of which more in a little while), but didn't know what to expect sonically and was taken very much by surprise by THOSE vocals. These are obviously the element that makes the album so divisive, so it'd be foolish to try and avoid discussing them - they are the elephant in the room, and a sizeable elephant at that.

Onto that folklore quickly though - as I'm sure you're aware if you've read this far into the subject, there are a lot of rumours about Nattramn, the vocalist on this album. Those rumours range from the fairly believable to the completely improbable and ridiculous. For example, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were confirmed that Nattramn self-harmed during the recording of the vocals, and could easily believe he has some form of mental health disorder that subsequently required him to be sectioned, but that thing about the pig hooves is just dumb. And I've seen lots of discussion of his subsequent hospitalisation and the "playground incident", and found quite a compelling new explanation recently which seems to absolve Nattramn of the horrible things he's been accused of elsewhere on the internet, but still - it seems no-one really knows anything concrete about him, other than his nationality, a possible real name and a rough idea of his age. Conjecture is all we really have on this subject, so it's pointless dwelling on it any more than we have. Onto the vocals...

I won't try to tell you that Nattramn's disconcerting high-pitched shrieks will make you feel any particular way, but I think it's fair to assume they will, at the very least, take you by surprise. After the quiet, atmospheric intro of the first track they come in suddenly, with an alien falsetto cry that sets the tone for much of the rest of the vocal delivery of this album. He does also lapse into other, more conventional hoarse black metal vocals at times (and he's good at those). The strangest moment comes halfway through the second track, where his voice takes on a cracking, gurgling quality which fluctuates in pitch in a similar way to Yoda, which is really strange but somehow only serves to compound the image you've by now probably developed of his emotional suffering. Nattramn's vocals have their fans, and obviously numerous detractors, and those who laugh - not to moralise, but I think it takes someone exceptionally callous and insensitive to find any humour in this display of what is obviously genuine anguish and, perhaps, mental illness. But Nattramn's ability to split audiences in this way, creating so many strong reactions in so many directions, is arguably a form of validation of his unique style - and you can't deny it's rare to find a vocalist that polarises to this extent. For my part, when I first heard the album the vocals scared me half to death. I was super, super freaked out and swore off the album for quite a while, but recently decided to re-appraise it and try to give it the review it deserves. And I'm glad I did.

The whole thing still gives me a chill down the spine on numerous occasions during its play time, and I still find it very difficult, uncomfortable listening due to the sheer weight of emotion in it. The vocals are worlds away from restrained melodicism, and equally from face-melting aggression, both of which have been used to channel similar lyrical ideas, but Nattramn's style feels far more raw and primal - and therefore conveys those emotions much more authentically. The vocals express pain, frustration and despondency in Technicolor. It doesn't get much more real than this. The title track, which opens the album, has the initial shock factor of introducing the crazed screaming, but the second track, "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels" (I'll treat the puerile joking of some of my fellow reviewers with the dignified silence it deserves) is where things get even darker.

The track opens with a very melancholic folk-esque melody, which of course gives way to the screaming that you've had a little time to acclimate to by now. Much of the music on this album is typical depressive black-metal fare - drums deliver a constant rain-cloud of blast beats, followed by the guitars tremolo-picking at warp speed. The bass, as is often the case in such endeavours, is so deeply buried in the mix that it may as well not be there. However, on "Sterile Nails" there are some heavier sections which are more reminiscent of early black metal and, well, stuff with actual riffs. Over this section, Nattramn lapses into more typical black metal rasps, but the song drops down into a quiet section after a little while, over which Nattramn does the aforementioned pathetic, creaking, gurgling voice that would be amusing, were you not so painfully aware of his fragile mental state and the fact that he may well have been self-harming a minute or two before. The track builds up as Nattramn suddenly lurches back into his high-pitched wail, imploring the listener to "leap, leap from life - leave yourself, die with me". This is probably the most important track on the album - it is the most startling display of emotion for the entirety of the disc (and, I might argue, for black metal as a whole). Having said that, the track ends almost anticlimactically, with another heavy section over which Nattramn seems to put on a comical, deep "metal voice" that sounds more like he's taking the piss than anything else. See... there is a little bit of light and shade here, I guess.

The first two tracks aside, the rest of the album does seem to blend into one - not necessarily a bad thing, as I think this is an album to be listened to and digested as a cohesive whole and that judging individual songs (other than a standout track or two, as above) defeats the point a little. This album is definitely greater as a whole than as individual parts, though that does mean that in order to get the best from it, you have to sit through 50 minutes of the most gut-wrenchingly depressing music ever recorded. It's not for the faint of heart, but it is certainly worth doing at least once.

As I said at the start, it's difficult to know what conclusions to draw about this album. We don't know how much, if any, of the back story is true, so we don't even really know what the circumstances surrounding the album's recording and production are, which could serve to drastically change the way we view it and the effect it has on us emotionally. But taking it on its own merits as much as possible, it is a well-executed, quite well-produced black metal album with some remarkable vocal delivery and lyrics that could turn the happiest-go-luckiest optimist into a shuddering emotional wreck. If you're a sociopath, you might find it funny. If you're very sensitive to this kind of thing, you'll want to turn it off immediately, and if you've managed to overcome that and listen to it as a whole, you might find a lot to like - but it's still pretty spine-chilling even once you're desensitized.

This certainly is not an amazing album by any definition of the word, but is it bad? No, absolutely not. Musically speaking, this is a fairly average to even above average depressive black metal album. I first came upon this release when I was in a fairly uncomfortable depression which lasted most of the summer of 2011. Even when I first heard this four years ago, I knew I enjoyed it but at the same time, felt extremely uncomfortable listening to it. Sure, the music is satisfyingly dark and depressing and really everything you could want in a DSBM album but the album's tragic fall is one that so many in the past have pointed out: Nattramn's vocals. To be quite frank, they are awful. Not only are they bad, they are also extremely loud, and cause a huge distraction from the rest of the music which is otherwise fairly good.

This album opens with probably the greatest song offered throughout the album, the title track. It begins with a somber clean piece and contains some of the darkest guitar riffs experienced throughout the nearly 50-minute run time. The guitar riffs and clean parts are extremely emotionally driven and very deep, which really add the haunting element to the atmosphere. There is quite a bit of repetition in this music but not too much making you want to skip through the songs after two or three minutes. They have pretty much found the perfect median in terms of when to stop focusing too much on a given idea. There is not a whole lot of variation in terms of instrumentation but really that's not an issue, and the melancholy of this album can be felt entirely throughout, which is certainly the goal here. The drums are fairly solid and alternate from standard mid-paced drumming to random blast beats that pop up every so often. While they aren't much to speak of in terms of technicality, they still are performed quite well and should be noted.

Of course, with a rating of 50, this album obviously has a huge problem, and that is the aforementioned vocal performance by Nattramn. It seems to me like he is trying too hard to resemble a "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" era Varg Vikernes. However, he does miss the mark by quite a bit. He doesn't have the same haunting atmosphere we experience in Burzum's early music. Instead, he sounds like a melodramatic teenage girl crying because her boyfriend broke up with her and fell for someone else. At times, he does sound somewhat chilling and painful, but painful vocals don't always sound good, even in DSBM. These vocals are more painful in that it kind of hurts to listen to them. I nearly got a migraine the other day when I was revisiting this album, solely because of the vocals. They are listenable most of the time but they tend to get extremely annoying and tedious, and in return, they can become unlistenable. If it wasn't for these vocals, this would definitely be an easier album to enjoy and my opinion on it would be much more positive.

I really wish I enjoyed this album more. It would be so much better without Nattramn's annoying wails and almost ironically comical screams. This is a perfect example of how vocals could almost ruin an entire album and really set it back in terms of quality. It seems to be an album you either love or hate but I am really on the fence about this one. Thankfully, this was the only full-length Silencer put out. Oh, how I wish this was an instrumental album...

Let me begin with a bit of a back-story behind my discovery of this band. Myself and a couple of friends a few months back were sitting in my basement, listening to some Emperor, when one of them tells us about a band he recently discovered, a band by the name of Silencer. We were just told that the instrumentation was actually somewhat solid, other than the vocals. So he puts it on for us; the music itself was actually, surprisingly, not too bad. Sure it wasn't anything spectacular or mind-blowing, but it wasn't bad. Then all of the sudden we hear this deathly scream and all just start laughing our asses off. You know it's a bad start when your first impression of a band is to laugh (unless it's a band the likes of Steel Panther or something).

These vocals are atrocious, to be quite frank. Leere was actually a pretty good guitarist, and the keyboards and drums weren't bad; my only issue was that they were programmed in and not a real person playing. Nothing against people who do that, I just prefer when somebody is actually playing the instrument. The drums also sounded a bit basic with some random blast beats just kind of tossed in here and there.

Nattramn's vocals, however, completely ruin anything good that this album has going for it. The best way I can think to describe his vocals are through his own lyrics:

"Crushed skulls
Tasting the fur
Of dying cats"

Know how Spiderman gains his superpowers through getting bitten by a spider and that it somehow mutates and he gains the powers of that spider? Well, it sounds like in this record that Nattramn ate the fur of dying cats and somehow pulled some reverse-Spiderman bullshit and absorbed the powers to scream like a dying cat.

Seriously, that's the best way I can think to describe it. Allegedly, (though this is probably false and is heavily disputed), Nattramn cut himself in the recording studio to help him put the most painful and anguish-filled vocals possible by making himself actually feel pain. It just...does not sound good, at all. It almost sounds as if Nattramn is attempting to sound like King Diamond, in a way, with King Diamond's extremely high pitched screams. Problem is, he does a terrible job at it, and it literally just sounds like he screams random sounds and that he's not actually singing the lyrics. Later on into the record, it sounds as if he's a cat again, trying to hack up a hairball; the high pitched screaming is gone, and he's just kind of hacking and trying to breathe and get rid of something caught in his throat.

As it would have it, he goes right back to the weird, single-pitched screams that don't really show any vocal range whatsoever. It's very disappointing actually, because as I said earlier, the instrumentation is pretty decent. I feel like if anybody, and I mean anybody else was singing, it would be something I could listen to. Hell, throw the guy from Black Veil Brides in it and it'd be better and I may be able to tolerate it. Until that happens, though, this is something I just cannot bring myself to tolerate except for comedic purposes.

Silencer's vocalist Nattramn is a mysterious fella. Nobody really knows what's up with this crazy, Swedish bastard. Apparently, Leere (instrumentalist), his partner in crime, is normal. Whatever the case, they released 'Death - Pierce Me', which is infamous for the grisly rumours surrounding Silencer. Nattramn in particular.

Well, the first time I listened to this record was on a cold, dark winter night. I was alone and observing the blizzard outside from one of my living-room windows. The music (instruments) were surprisingly good. Dark, eerie and atmospheric; which is how black metal should be. I especially liked the creepy keys used to great effect, though mostly only for the intros and such to songs on this album.

All was well, I thought, remembering the terrible stories about 'Death - Pierce Me', as well as the people involved in it. I wondered what made so many people dislike this album so much. Perhaps, this was like Burzum. You either love it or hate it, I thought. What about the vocals? I wonder if they're anything like Varg Vikernes' banshee wails. And then they came...

Nattramn's vocals are truly horrifying. It raised every single hair on my body in a very, VERY bad way. It was truly terrifying! The rumours that he cut himself, chopped off fingers and what not, while recording the vocals suddenly made sense. It sounds like he's dying. Nattramn's high-pitched screams are in fact so horrifying that they remind me of the lady in Tom and Jerry whenever she spots Jerry. It left me mortified and slightly confused. What the fuck is going on?! And then, Nattramn beings rambling, talking to himself or something, in a quiet, eerie bit of a song in a voice that made me laugh my fucking ass off. He sounds like my one friend who has always had a strange voice (he's also a drug-addict whose mind has dissolved into nothing). Very gurgly, crackly and weird. Definitely doesn't sound human. Whether a very large man (or bear) was violating Nattramn's butthole throughout the recording process, or if he indeed cut himself up and what not, I don't know. But his vocals are hideous. They're scary and hilarious at the same time.

The lyrics are also awful for the most part. Very childish. Yes, we get it, Nattramn. You're depressed, angry and feel alienated in this world. But for god's sake be a bit mature about it! Nattramn seems obsessed with the idea that somebody comes and finds him, strangles him, cuts him up and drinks his blood. Hey, maybe he's into that sexually. Whatever it is, it's certainly not what you'd expect from a grown-ass man. Then again, wasn't he the guy who replaced his hands with pig-hooves and went on to drive an axe through a 5 year-old girl's head? Grim indeed.

'Death - Pierce Me' is however not awful due to the instrumental bits. They're pretty good. Without Nattramn's retarded vocals and lyrics, this album would be held in high regard by myself, personally. I think fans of black metal should listen to this at least once just to experience it. It's very hit or miss, I guess. Somehow, I still end up in between that, because the music is fine. It's just the ridiculous vocals that turn this album into a big shit, but a very pleasant big shit, if that makes sense.

I have listened to this album under three different circumstances.

First, the day when I picked it up and was in a rather average mood: I liked the album, didn't strike me as something special and I kept it aside.

Second, one day when I was in a great mood: I hated the album

Third, I was caught in too much gloom and was listening to my DSBM catalogue: I loved the album. Welcome, Silencer.

Since that day and until now, I have probably listened to that album from beginning to end more than a few hundred times and it genuinely provides a peek to those unexplored fringes of the mind and leaves you disturbed. No, you don't need to know the alleged notoriety surrounding Nattramn to appreciate the album. In fact, I think there are far superior component to this album than his vocals alone, which black metal fans either seem to love or hate. That's also one more thing I fail to understand. Several people have dismissed this classic album just on the basis of Nattramn's voice and invented glorious epithets for vocal range, such as 'pig squeals', 'dying cat', etc. Wake up, it's DSBM. What did you expect? Celine Dion?

Now coming to the music, it's really the first two songs which seals the deal. Not to say that that the remaining songs are fillers, just that the first two songs can basically bid a fuck-off to all DSBM songs ever made. The first song, called Death-Pierce Me after the album title itself, starts with a slow rather melodic intro. The first thought that comes to your mind in those first few seconds is "It is one of those albums - sweet short intro - screams and blast beats - next song." No, not until you've heard Nattramn's voice, and it will stick to your head for the rest of your wretched life. The musicianship on the first song is exceptional as well with several highs and lows, beautiful solos, followed by guttural screeches till it culminates to a fantastic end. The second song, "Sterile Nails and Thuderbowels," is arguably the best song of the album. If bands could just sell a portion of the guitar riffs from their songs, the one in this song after the lyrics "Crushed skulls tasting the fur of dying cats" would easily sell for a million dollars. It is also this song which underlines the superior musicianship of Leere. Hands down, if not for Leere, this album would not have gone down in the history as a DSBM classic. You can't make a clasic with just Nattramn's screeches, you need the whole atmosphere which Leere provides.

Overall I feel that the song "Taklamakan" is a relatively overrated track in this album and people seem to pay more attention to this one because purportedly Nattramn was cutting himself and gagging while recording. You can hear some of those vocal effects towards the end of this song, however musically it doesn't add quite a whole lot to the album. But sure enough, Nattramns voice is especially unique in this song than some of the rest. Songs like these make me wonder how many re-takes did it take to finalize each track of this album, because Nattramn's singing style doesn't seem to be reproducible for re-takes. There's often no structure, and a lot of pain and I am unsure if those same emotions can be reproduced if he had to sing the same song twice. Once again, it is amidst these wails of screams, howls, and guttural screeches that Leere's music ties everything together into one solid entity. Lyrically, the entire entire album speaks of Nattramn's literary genius, especially the track "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow". In terms of pace, this is the fastest too with a speedy intro which stays until almost the end when Nattramn's voice seemingly breaks into tears and says:

"Convert my ashes,
Rebuild me in the spiral world
Of nowhere
My only solution
Is the cosmic conclusion."

Thank you, Nattramn. Each one of us have felt like this miserable at least once in our life. The album ends with "Feeble are you - Sons of Sion" which is an instrumental track and carries with it the perfect sense of calm after there's actually nothing left to destroy, all is dead and gone and so must you. All in all, this is an essential DSBM album. However, listen with caution and keep sharp objects away from reach.

This is such a tortured, choatic and depressingly blissful album that stands alone. There is not a better album out there that can evoke painful, uncontrollable and unstanable emotions such as this. It is at the very peak of suspenseful, gloomy and blackened metal albums out there. In my opinion this feels like a 10 out of 10. This was a unique experience as I was taken on a dark journey through abandoned asylums filled with forgotten and tortured screams from past and eerie events. The mood and atmosphere of this album was shadowy, bleak and eerie with somehow the dimmest light at the end of the tunnel. Although the album had the focus to stay at rock bottom in terms of joyful emotions, some songs felt as though there was the tiniest glimpse of hope to be found.

There are many mysteries behind the makings of this album and of the signer himself Nattramn, which ups the creepy factor. The only album Silencer ever made stands as one of the greatest and influencial achievements in the Depressive and Suicidal black metal realm. The dark and soulless ambience significantly adds to the depressive and suicidal mood. Musically speaking, the album is particularly well executed and the production is spot on. While Nattramn's vocals sound like a screeching cat, his presence can be felt everywhere at once and that he is screaming behind the listener. Leere's bass playing and guitar playing is very thematic and ominous especially on the track Taklamakan. Also Steve Wolz displays some very tight and precise drumming.

As a whole, this album is a must listen for any metal fan at anytime. However beware, there are many scary and disturbing moments on this album such as Nattramn's random screams in the opening track 'Death, Pierce Me' to his vomiting sounds in Taklamakan. This album is unlike anything else out there. So much mystery is behind this work of art, that each listen become more and more different everytime. This album can be listen to at anytime of year, it can help one get through the bleak and cold winters or reflect and ponder through the long summers. There are more questions than answers on this album, but in fact none of these questions need to be answered, only headphones will do the trick and do this album justice. I could ramble on about how enthralling this album is, but its all about the listener to based their opinion on one of the deepest albums ever made.

The black metal scene is one with many stories surrounding it, from the killing of Euronymous at its very start, to the issues with Wrest raping his girlfriend with a tattoo gun, these stories can occasionally overshadow the music, drawing attention away from the very thing these artists set out to do. This may be the case with Silencer, a suicidal black metal band from Sweden. The tales and whispers surrounding front man Nattramn are so numerous and speculated; from the debate as to whether he has pig trotters for hand, to his apparent attempted murder of a girl and his suicide attempt afterwards, all this drawing your attention away from their only release, the masterpiece Death - Pierce Me.

On first listen one does not really know what to expect, for anyone who goes into this expecting something akin to any other depressive black metal album, such as those of Leviathan, Xasthur or Shining they will be shocked. This album is unlike anything anyone has ever heard before, from its soft keyboard sections, to its furious and brutal moments of pure black metal, to acoustic passages reminiscent of Agalloch this is a journey into the deepest, darkest and most haunting areas of the human psych that will leave listeners changed forever, its variety adds to the experience that this album is, throwing the listener back and forth as the band take you through their hellish landscape.

The instrumentation on this album is superb, guitarist Leere crafts an atmosphere of intense dark through the variety of different sounds he creates, from slow acoustic passages to intense tremolo in a heartbeat, all backed up by powerful drum work from Steve Wolz, from blast beats to rhythmic sections, its as varied as the guitar work, coming together to provide an intense wall of sound that draws the listener in, switching from instrumental passages that weave and flow harmoniously, to supporting the vocals in furious displays of rampant black metal, its all done with perfect precision. Other instruments take part in this gloomy sound scape, an example been the piano passage in the title track and synthesisers adding to the atmosphere been created.

The biggest factor in this album however is the vocals, the unique style performed by Nattramn here is one of tortured wails that make or break this album for the listener. For me they are the thing that makes this album perfect. The painful shrieks emanating from Nattramn are the very sound of someone in the fit of despair, the very sound of depression and the emotion that is poured into the noise created only makes it more powerful. Rumour says that he achieved this scream by harming himself in the studio, and listening to it you could very well believe it. The vocals are as varied as the instruments however, Nattramn switching from his wail, to simple black metal snarl and hoarse cries with ease, an example been on Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels. Lyrically this album is poetic, with the words howled by Nattramn deepening the emotional well that this album is. Far beyond the realms of the stereotypical depressive black metal lyrics, Nattramn adds depth, an example:

Vast souls
And inhumans,
Bitten by infected jaws

Abandoned minds
And corpses
Lurking with moulded eyes
Lacerated bodies
Without mourners
Nodding in gallows

This is an absolute masterpiece of the suicidal black metal genre, and indeed of any black metal album, this album will draw any listener into its murky depths of sadness and throw them out at the end. Any fan of depressive black metal should give pick this up, they will be the better for it, whilst it won't be the most enjoyable experience, its one that should definitely be undertaken.

The legend has it that Mr. Nattramn mutilated himself while recording the vocals so as to ''channel'' his physical pain into ''inhuman'' screams, some even go as far as saying the guy cut his hands so much that by the time the vocal tracks were finished, his hands were hideously deformed and beyond recovery, so he amputated his own hands, replacing it with pig hands.

Now, the story is ridiculous and dumb, however, it's not as ridiculous as Nattramn's attempts at singing.

The instrumentation on this album is quite good, the production, while muddy and dirty, is clear enough to let all of the instruments be perfectly discernable from each other, Steve Wolz' drumming is actually quite good, ranging from crazed blast beats to slower, calmer parts which help to showcase Wolz' skills at drumming, his foot technique is also very solid, and helps boost the sound as a whole. Leere's handling of the guitar and bass is also excellent, while the riffs and the overall guitarwork may not be quite technical, he does a great job at writing some fucking cold and grim tremolo picked riffs that resemble traditional black metal instead of dsbm, the guy goes from slow to fast, then to superspeed and back to slow again, and all in the same song, Leere and Wolz' performances are what truly make this album stand out from most.

Nattramn vocals are amongst the worse in dsbm if not the worst in bm altogether, the guy does nothing but scream his lungs out for most of the album, when he isn't screaming stupidly, he's talking in this high-pitched voice which is extremely annoying, however, there are some occasions in which Nattramn actually changes his vocal style into a more usual and acceptable bm vocals, sadly, this moments are few and scarce.

The lyrics are... Nonsensical bullshit written by Nattramn, you can tell merely by readind the title of the second song, ''Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels'' I mean, what is that supposed to mean? What the fuck are thunderbowels? But the utter and insulting nonsense does not end there, the lyrics also speak about ''vast souls bitten by infected jaws'' and of ''crushed skulls tasting the fur of dying cats'', only the last moments of the song actually make some sort of sense, otherwise its just Nattyguy screaming senseless idiocy for over six minutes.

This has nothing ''depressive'' the music is excellent, yet sounds more like traditional Black Metal, the vocals are annoying and the lyrics are stupid, Austere, Forgotten Tomb, Happy Days and Bethlehem all do a much better job at depressive black metal than this guys could ever hope.

In short, if you want real, depressive black metal, look somewhere else, Silencer is only good because of the joint talent of Leere and Wolz', nothing else, if you're willing to listen over forty minutes of deranged and senseless screams, give it a try.

At first listen, you would be right to consider turning off Silencer's Death Pierce Me within the space of four minutes. It is such a harrowing experience from cover to cover that unless you are well prepared, the suicidal black metal band could well induce the feelings in your head that they pour into their music. Death Pierce Me is neither an enjoyable experience nor an easy one to sit through, but stands out as a landmark Depressive Suicidal Black Metal release and one of the few that has achieved any form of attention within the extreme metal community. This is an album that is both highly recommended and not recommended at all-nobody should willingly enter the tortured landscapes depicted by this album, and yet it is an experience that carries so much weight and has such an impact that this is a near essential black metal release.

The sound of this album is a dark, murky and thoroughly depressing one. It will feel like such a long journey from the soft opening right through the various twists and turns of this release to its thrilling conclusion, purely for the fact that it is enough to reduce a grown man to tears. No matter what frame of mind you are in when you first listen to this, it should affect you if you are human, in similar ways that Agalloch's The Mantle should. This is a progressively oriented black metal album, that jumps from soft acoustic sections to the frenzy of tremolo picking and blast beats fast enough to cause epileptic fits. If you thought you were in for one hell of a ride, you were right.

The best and worst thing simultaneously about this release are the absolutely tortured vocals. The vocal work on this album is some of the most unique and difficult listening out there, with the vocalist sounding as though he is having razors jabbed into him and being struck with a red hot poker at the same time. He whines and screams his way through this album with so much emotion poured into his vocals and the lyrics that it is a wonder he didn't break down crying whilst recording it. He does not have a particularly wide range, primarily sticking to an overly tormented style of high pitched screaming, but he more than makes up for this in the actual sound of his voice. If you can listen to this without being affected mentally, then you are clearly more than a little unhinged already.

The instrumental work is absolutely top notch on this album, with the aforementioned "pure" black metal sections being handled masterfully with some superb blast beats and an evil sound created by the endless tremolo picking during these parts. However, it is the softer parts of the album that carry it forward better. The instrumental track Feeble Are You creates the most sinister and haunting atmosphere in existence, whilst the clean parts of the title track weave in keyboard work and organs to create a perfectly written song. Taklaman starts with a very cool sounding piece of drumming and fast bass work before the tremolo picking comes in and the vocalist starts shrieking and it could not work better as an introduction.

This is a masterpiece of depressive suicidal black metal that at times pushes the boundaries of what is actually listenable with its dark atmosphere and tortured vocal performance. The only real flaw with this album is that they perhaps took the depressive nature of their music too far, and created one of the most startling displays of emotion imaginable. The barren landscapes created by the instrumental work are perfectly complemented by the vocal performance with a decent enough production job to top it all off. This is a bloody amazing album that everyone should listen to at least once.

This was the first black metal album that I had ever heard. Back in early high school a friend of mine had told me about it. I cannot remember what he said, but I did decide to look it up. It must have been something about it being “totally fucked and really scary sounding”. Naturally I was curious to look this up and I remember listening to “Slow Kill in the Cold”. The death-like dirge of dark synth at the beginning creeped me out as it was, but when I first heard the howl of Nattramn, I’m pretty sure I quickly shut off the music. Now several years later and having listened to countless of black metal albums and it having become my favourite genre of metal, I can still say that this album is one of the most chilling and disturbing albums that I have heard in the genre.

I don’t care if you might think that Nattramn sounds like a dying cat, his vocals are still some of the most menacing and unsettling vocal performances I have ever heard. The extreme high- pitched wail you could say sounds slightly similar to Varg’s, but still is far more deranged- sounding. It actually sounds like the voice of a broken mind. Whether or not Nattramn was truly insane and killed a kid with an axe or whatever or whether he was even put in a mental institution is up for debate, but in all honesty I wouldn’t be surprised if it's true. An awesome thing about Nattramn as a vocalist is that he is actually rather good at both ends of the “black metal vocal range”. As I mentioned before, the highs are some of the craziest you will ever hear, but also the more typical black metal growls are impressive, such as on “Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels”. Perhaps most unsettling is the fact that he doesn’t just limit himself to “average” vocals. Several times throughout the album he will moan, cry, sob, and shriek to get the message across. Although sometimes sounding quite comedic, for a first time listener this music would definitely be unsettling.

Most people, when they talk about this album, only mention all the rumours about Nattramn and the vocals, but people seem to neglect the fact that this album has some incredible instrumentation. The drumming done by Steve Wolz is actually incredible and right on with the guitar work. It is extremely vicious. It doesn’t exactly have any unique tone or feel to it, but there is definitely a considerate amount of variation in the songs, especially some pretty cool drum fills. The guitar work is actually wonderful. Even to this day I think some of the riffs on this album are some of the most sinister and cold riffs in all of black metal. Riffs like the main riff from “Death Pierce-Me” and “I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow” are among the best on this album. Even the bass is somewhat prominent on the album with a very unexpected bass and drum intro to “Talklamakan”.

The overall atmosphere that is created by this album is one of a dark and very cold chamber of sorts. Or even an insane asylum. It definitely seems like a very fitting setting for this album to portray. Overall, all the parts of the album come together with no real large flaws and it is easy to see how this album has become a cult classic in the black metal genre, regardless of whatever notorious rumours have circulated about this band or not. I want to finish the review with one of my favourite lyric lines from this album:

“Beyond mind is sleep to be found”

This record by Silencer (their only full-length) has gone down as a cult legend. I would attribute this mostly to the vocals and to the rumors surrounding Nattramn (the vocalist). Often in black metal an album will gain cultural significance not because it is musically well made but because of external factors surrounding the band. I would argue that Mayhem might fit this description. There are some, like Burzum, that have both the external aspects drawing attention to them (Varg and the murder of Euronymous give him fame outside of even black metal circles) but it also stands out as masterpieces of black metal for the music.

I can understand that Silencer, to some, might have the same universal appeal. Both the external controversy and the music. I would say that musically the vocals outshine the rest in terms of “appeal.” The extreme falsetto brings the love/hate relationship right to the music. They are the one thing, the one aspect, on their album that stands out. The music itself isn't bad but it is overshadowed by the vocals. The music is slow and brooding before it explodes to a faster pace. The dynamic is effective and makes the album interesting even when Nattramn isn't singing.

While some may say that the vocals represent the singers angst or other such nonsense, I find it hard to use that logic to justify a singer that is so comical. That is the only way I can describe the vocals for this album: comical. Mostly this comes from the middle of the second track - “Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels” (a term my wife now uses to describe the night after wings at Hooters). When my wife, who dislikes black metal, heard me listening to this she laughed. The two things that I thought the singer sounded like when I heard the album was Gollum and Ned Flanders in the Simpsons when he screams. I'm pretty sure that is not what Nattramn intended.

Perhaps a lot of the record has to do with your place in life when listening to “Death – Pierce Me.” If you are depressed then maybe this music will speak to you, make you feel like somebody else understands what you're going through. To those of us who are not depressed and are looking for music that might have some actual artistic merit, this record does not fit the bill. If you are not depressed then the record sounds gimmicky, trying so hard to be depressing with the overdone lyrics and the over-the-top vocal style, that it is hard to look past it for anything else.

The album ends up being one of those records that people love or hate. This usually, no matter how you look at it, makes the record at least interesting. “Death – Pierce Me” is no doubt and interesting record because of the vocals. This is the deciding aspect because the music is not really anything revolutionary. Not bad, but its nothing special. Its the vocals that make the band stand out, giving them a distinct feel, and whether you enjoy Nattramn's style or not, you can't deny that the album is different than most because of him.

This is probably the most honest, the rawest and the most immense painfully metal album that I have ever listened to in my life. Never have I heard an artist who expressed himself so honestly and intensely as Silencer.

The album kicks off with a slow river of pain – a beautiful slow piece of music that is like the silence before an enormous thunderstorm strikes. Then suddenly the first track kicks into brutal overdrive. The vocals are so unnerving that it made the hair on my neck stand up. The guitar-riffs are simple, yet very effective and are nicely rounded off by very fast drumming. What is really important when listening to an album this intense is following the lyrics. The brutal honesty with which the lyrics were written is particularly striking. The theme touches on the topic of suicide. Sadly there are some fucktards on the Internet who thinks that this is funny. Someday when they grow up they might begin to understand the trauma and pain that Silencer is screaming about.

You will hear a lot of pieces on this album that start off with a stream of melancholy which suddenly explodes into a painfully fast piece of existential trauma that even the darkest gods in hell will be scared of. Brutal waves of suicide rolls on and then suddenly calms down in a track named “The slow kill in the cold”. But the slow stream does not last very long, because hereafter the shit hits the fan once again. The way in which the album ends is quite nice – the last track is a beautiful piece of piano music that almost reminded me of a mixture between romanticism and some avant-garde kind of melody.

Silencer doesn’t just use screaming, but also coughing and vomiting kind of sounds that is really unnerving. There are also a lot of psychological techniques that are thrown at the listener like bowels of blood that are drained from the merciless screaming and brutal pain. It is easy for critics to describe this music as simple noise, but when you look at the aesthetic features that are woven together from the complex emotional subjectivity of Silencer, it becomes clear that every riff, every sound, every scream speaks from the bottom of a tortured spirit. In this way the philosophical concept of an anomaly is addressed very directly and it results in the construction of a symphony that never bleeds dry. Overall the simple mixture of guitar, drums and occasional keyboards fits quite well with the general dark and depressing aura of this album. This album is a piece of genuine art that might be influential beyond the general depressive black metal cult. It is also something that fans of funeral doom metal might appreciate and those with a taste for avant-garde artists like Diamanda Galas might also enjoy this one.

The symbolism that this album touches on in general is excellent – just as the music are shoved back and forth between slower and faster pieces, so is the life of any human being shoved back and forth between slower, introspective moments and faster, chaotic moments in which the most brutal form of angst sweeps you off your feet and throws you into the darkest corners of the abyss.

It feels to me like everything everyone has written about this album is unbelievably incorrect. It almost feels like everyone's listening to a different album from me- all the wrong (and generally most obvious) aspects of it are emphasized, and not the elements which really make it an enduring piece of art that I still obsessively listen and re-listen to years upon years after hearing it initially. It mystifies me how people can arrive at the same general conclusion about this album- that it's an amazing black metal release which stands tall among the greatest the genre has produced- and yet still so massively understand the aspects which make it incredible. I hope I can evade some of the same pitfalls while writing about it.

I'd like to preface everything by saying all the stories surrounding this album, and Nattramn in particular, are completely irrelevant to its character. Nattramn could be a fucking mailman for all I care and this release would be equally amazing. The thank you list of pharmaceutical drugs, the institutionalization, Nattramn's hospitalization and rebirth as Diagnose: Lebensgefahr (a massively inferior work to this) are all unimportant, and I'm not going to dwell on these aspects after this paragraph. It's a shame that, like so many classic black metal releases, 'Death - Pierce Me' has been reduced to a collection of stories and rumors instead of an artistic piece in and of itself. The only thing that I can hope is that eventually enough years will get between new listeners and its release so that they can listen to it with open minds, not clouded by the celebrity-obsessed metal scene and their love of gossip and drama. Anyway, we're already giving too much time to these elements by even mentioning them.

Have you ever felt depressed? More properly, have you ever 'had' depression? Have you had months-long periods in your life that you can barely remember because they were mostly absorbed by sitting in your bedroom, trying to figure out how to leave and be 'normal' for a moment? I'm not talking about a brief period of intense depression caused by the death of a loved one, of a long-term relationship falling apart, or any other transitory factor: I mean the sort of pathological bleakness that starts in your brainstem and travels down to your soul, to the point where there's brief periods in the day where you know (don't think, know) that suicide is the only answer. Days where the temptation to leave a corpse for others to find and the very act of looking in the mirror is so primally revolting you can barely do it. Days where you sicken yourself just by existing and when sitting in your car you want to start pulling off strips of skin simply because you can't be yourself and exist anymore. It's hard to describe what something like this feels like to someone who's been fortunate enough not to feel it- the very idea that the self no longer makes sense and you spend most of your time in a dream world of total, all-encompassing self-hatred and suffering.

I ask all these questions because Silencer is one of the only bands that I've heard who capture depression as it actually is. Not a romantic sorrow, not something passionate and artistic, but the greyness of living in that mental state, where sadness eventually gets overwhelmed by sheer tiredness, resignation, and regret that you ever existed. There's a potent mixture of insane rage and equally insane self-destruction in this music that I think only really resonates with people who have been there before (and not even all the time, at that). It's a product of a very peculiar mixture of neurological chemicals and environmental suffering, and Silencer captures exactly what it's like to feel it. Not really sad, not crying, not even wishing for another life, but just sitting on the couch, knees pulled to your chest, looking out the window, and not thinking because it hurts too much even to think. It's horribly negative music that I have no doubt has inspired more than a few desperate bids for salvation at the bottom of a pill bottle.

Let's get the most obvious and least important element out of the way quickly: Nattramn's vocals are what they are. He shrieks like a little girl, wheezes, feebly grunts, and sounds weak a lot of the time. He's not a particularly good vocalist by any traditional measure, but he's appropriate for the music and is good, if you listen with an open mind, at putting you in the sort of mental state that this music was likely composed in. He sounds desperate and pathetic and self-pitying and tired- in short, he doesn't sound like a black metal vocalist typically should sound like. He has no breath control, no real understanding of how to deliver lyrics, and no real concern over impressing anyone. He sounds exactly like you feel in the depressive state: just weak and defeated. It's perfect for what it is.

Much more important than any of that, though, are the instrumental compositions which seem to get shrugged off so easily. Silencer's music is at once inspired by Bethlehem (owing to drummer Steve Wolz) and not even remotely similar. While Bethlehem tried for a lurking, almost occult look at mental illness, Silencer's goal is a lot simpler, and the music reflects it. It could be said that Silencer is sort of a rough prototype of what bands like Nyktalgia would later create: long, meandering songs filled with rote blasting, droning, bleak tremolo riffs, and insane, wailing vocals, but there's a certain intimacy and subtlety to the compositions on this record that can't be understated. Nyktalgia is a band created when depressive black metal has already been codified- while they're excellent at it, they have a playbook to follow. Silencer has no such playbook, and because of it is a much stranger beast.

A lot of the standard tropes of depressive black metal are here: fast blast beats become slow because they go on so long, and the bleary, red-eyed tremolo riffs are hazy and not particularly sharp or insistent due to the inherently misty guitar tone. At the same time, there's a lot more rhythmic and melodic play on this record than many give it credit for: careful listening reveals a lot of sinister, quiet counterpoint melodies between the two guitar tracks and even the surprisingly audible bass, which almost acts like a quiet, whispering voice in the background, answering 'yes' to all the questions the guitars ask. The riffs aren't depressive in today's established sense of depressive black metal riffs; they tend to sound more grey, confused, and alien, with 'Taklamakan''s opening riff a particularly unpleasant and clear example of it. Hints pop up of Sterbend, Nocturnal Depression, all the big names the depressive black metal scene would later turn out, but Silencer tends to reside in less obvious and more desolate melodic avenues. They display rainy days in an urban environment, jobs lost because you just stopped showing up for work, and an empty stomach because you can't bother to go grocery shopping. They're not supposed to be catchy or fun, and they don't accidentally run into either.

Beyond that are the surprisingly nuanced drums of Wolz, who despite the relative rhythmic simplicity of the music does all he can to provide a more lush, organic feel to the music. His skills most obviously come out on the numerous piano or clean guitar passages that dot the album, where he's given free reign to play with the boundaries of rhythm, adding subtle, dynamic accents to the stillness of the melodic instruments. Even within the more conventional beats, he always finds time for abrupt, off-kilter fills, sudden cymbal switches, and quick trills here and there which let you know he's still breathing despite the deathlike stamina he displays on the long songs. He provides a welcome bit of variation to what is, at its core, fairly still and static music, and with a lesser drummer, the album wouldn't be as effective.

The structuring of this release is interesting, and I definitely think there's a story being told, as abstract and unconcerned with precision as it clearly is. The first and last of the black metal tracks are clearly more straightforward in their sadness than the middle tracks- they're the catchiest and the most obvious to associate with the album. It's the middle three which really make it what it is, though: the wistful, almost contemplative and sardonic 'Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels', the unspeakably ugly and depraved 'Taklamakan', and the grim, seemingly neverending 'The Slow Kill In the Cold', given even more austere beauty and finality through its bookends of simple, ambient synthwork. These are the songs which really define the album for what it is; it would be easy to shrug off the other two as just unusually unhinged depressive black metal tracks, but these songs give 'Death - Pierce Me' its unique and immediate character. There's no reprieve in these tracks from the all-consuming self-destruction the album practically encourages. Much like all the other tracks on 'Transilvanian Hunger' after the title cut, they're the songs which truly make the album what it is.

There's many small elements apart from the black metal which help set this apart: resigned music-box piano and clean guitar work, droning, haunted synths, and even small stretches of dark ambient and industrial that pop in to provide variation as well as reorganization and context in the long (and intentionally long-feeling) songs. These are some of the only places I've seen these elements used well in black metal- where other bands use clean guitars and piano almost as a necessary evil, or to flatter a pretense of sophistication, Silencer's application of them feels much more natural. Their inclusion is almost arbitrary but also necessary- they're the pieces which keep you anchored to the songs, rather than just drifting in a seemingly endless sea of grey tremolo riffs and blast beats. The focusing nature of these small pieces are powerful, as is the incredibly bleak, death-march closing piano piece 'Feeble Are You - Sons of Sion', where hope is completely and irrevocably lost. This is an album that absolutely must be listened to all at once- it loses almost all meaning when split into individual tracks and is very clearly meant to be consumed as a whole.

Silencer's album really might be one of the most misunderstood pseudo-classics of black metal- while there's an absolute plethora of elements to talk about regarding it, most seem content to just dredge up the same, tired handful of aesthetic aspects that really have little impact on the music in general, or have an impact that's felt in different ways than the listener would typically anticipate. I don't expect anyone new to appreciate this simply because I've written about it in this manner- this album is a love it or hate it affair, and the initial impression almost never changes- but I feel a need to give it some much-deserved context and dissection that it's been missing for a long time. After all, this disc is the story of a lot of days in my life. It only feels fair to give them some justice.

(Originally written for http://www.trialbyordeal666.blogspot.com)

Hype is a strange thing to me. Bands that don’t deserve praise will often get way too much of it, and albums will get praised for their more inferior assets as opposed to their best qualities, it happens all the time, I’m sure any metal fan could name several overhyped albums off the top of his head if he wanted to. The thing that infuriates me the most, though, is that sometimes albums will receive critical acclaim for qualities that don’t even exist in the music at all! I’m not talking about qualities such as the album being good or not, I’m talking about objective qualities, things that really aren’t based strictly on opinion. As you may have guessed, Death – Pierce Me is such an album. What is the nonexistent quality being fellated in this case? The constant claims by black metal fans that don’t know what they’re talking about that this is somehow the most sick, twisted, mentally insane record one could ever hear. This album is not sick or twisted in any way and I’m here to tell you why people think it is but it actually isn’t.

When getting to the root of this misconception, there’s one thing that can’t be ignored, something has to be dismissed right away: The vocals. It’s fairly easy to see why they get so much attention, because the more aggressive sections of the vocals are delivered in an incredibly original manner- they’re very high-pitched, almost like a black metal falsetto in a way, even the whiniest of whiny little shits in black metal (Wrest, for example) can’t match the pitch this guy manages to hold (for quite a long time, too, at some parts) and it’s a fresh take on an over-saturated vocal style. You could call them groundbreaking, I guess, but don’t mistake that for vocals that, as one reviewer put it, “show that his mental capacity is running out and he’s literally going insane”. One thing people like this seem to be missing is that despite their high pitch and volume, they actually sound really clean- they’re quite devoid of any harsh static crackling that’s rather prevalent in black metal vocals and because they’re not really that rough around the edges, the shock value of them merely comes from their higher pitch. I think the reason people say these vocals are “insane” is because, well, remember when you were just getting into extreme metal, or even any facet of metal with harsh vocals? They were strange, weird and uncomfortable to your ears, right? Well, that same lack of conditioning is exactly what’s going on in Death – Pierce Me. The shock of something new and unknown creates over-exaggerations of insanity. After a few spins of this album in full, the vocals don’t really sound mindblowing- they simply sound like a different style, an alternative like any other.

The high-pitched shrieking isn’t the only dimension Nattramn’s voice has, though, he also uses this sick wailing croak the odd time here and there, clearly attempting to sound like he’s crying. A grown man crying- no, wailing- over music? An interesting artistic choice, not something I’m going to demean for the sake of demeaning it, but does it work properly in conveying the insanity Nattramn wants to portray? Not really, when I hear that kind of thing, I’m not thinking to myself, “oh my he’s crying in his music that means he has real metal disorders and emotional pain”, I’m thinking “oh my he’s crying in his music what a whiny little bitch”. Insanity should be shown by raw, spastic ferocity, not pathetic whimpering.

That’s almost enough reason on its own to dismiss rumors of this album’s insanity, because the vocals are the only thing people are actually talking about when they discuss how sick and gut-wrenching this album is, but to be honest, if the vocals were backed up by DSBM that wasn’t as sweet and sugary as this stuff, I might have reason to latch on to the hype. The guitar doesn’t have the crunch it needs to mask the strangely conventional melodies- for something that’s supposed to send me on some intense psychotic journey this is some really melodic, accessible music. Structurally, it seems rather conventional and predictable, too, with simple, logical buildups and transitions- hell, the title track even follows the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus format, just stretched out to 10 minutes.

For a "suicidal" black metal album, Death - Pierce Me is rather musically dense- there’s a lot more going on here than most DSBM bands, as others prefer to take the minimalist route and play simpler melodies, letting slow-building chords resonate. Silencer take a slightly less original route (in black metal as a whole, anyways) by juxtaposing sections of basic, standalone melodies on piano or guitar or something, with sections of fast-paced drumming, riffing and screeching, aka “normal” black metal. Everything seems so carefully laid out and planned, and it loses a hell of a lot of its zing because of that- the best DSBM bands are the best because of the raw emotion and complete disregard for anything else in their music, they play because the riffs HAD to come into existence. Every riff needed that exact pitch, timbre, tempo and melody to properly convey the feelings of despair. There’s no sense of necessity or impulse here- every time I hear one of those long, drawn-out pseudo ambient piano sections, all I can picture is Nattramn saying something like “ooh, and then after I’m finished that fast and ferocious section, I’ll cry over a “somber” piano part! If I do that, then people will REALLY think I’m insane!”

Basically, it sounds really contrived. In a strictly musical sense, though, it’s not really a bad thing for the album, as Nattramn does know his way around basic songwriting 101, and for the most part, can write riffs that don’t irritate the shit outta me and actually get me nodding my head some of the time. The guy’s got some clear artistic ability; he’s not just a hack like the legions of other DSBM artists that don’t deserve much more than a shit on their face. However, unfortunately enough, these qualities actually work against the theme of the album- when I hear something that’s been deemed insane, I don’t expect to hear a squeaky-clean, formulaic, polished work- I expect something that either viciously grabs me by the nuts, or, alternatively, lets me settle in to its thin veil of comfort, and only once I pay attention to it do I start to think “man, these guys are pretty fucked up”.

This is far from the worst DSBM there is, for sure- in fact, given that there’s a plethora of god-awful bands that play in this vein, this is probably one of the better albums of the style, simply because of the compositional skill present that so many others lack. On a strictly musical level, I’d probably give this about a 65, give or take a few. However- the simple fact is, this is an artistic failure in the sense that there’s an incredible contrast between what he intended to create and what did create- when listening to this, even though it’s executed professionally I can’t help but feel that the album’s goal falls flat on its face for that reason specifically. It got marked down quite a bit for that. Silencer is simply another overrated novelty band that will get unnecessary praise and hatred until the end of time, and the reality is there’s not really much here worth loving or hating. Death – Pierce Me is inoffensive, bland, and not worth any sort of attention.

Sweet Christ, nothing NOTHING will ever replicate the feeling I had when I first heard Nattramn’s opening scream at the beginning of “Death Pierce Me.” After two whole minutes of soft, repetitive guitar and drums, out of nowhere came the most shit-crazy falsetto wail I had ever heard. What was once an aching progression became frenzied mania, and I have been in love with it ever since. The madness that drips from this album by Swedish black metal band Silencer is acquired through not only the music’s constant change-ups, speeds and slows, but in singer Nattramn’s insane (literally, insane) vocal stylings and noises (hacks, undulatings, screams, and mutterings).

A listener can’t really be comfortable while experiencing the album Death Pierce Me. It makes the hairs on your arms stand straight, causes you to shift in your chair, and always keeps you on your toes. You become as paranoid and unstable as Nattramn appears to be. And if you’re anything like me, you found pleasure in every minute of it, in a primal and subtly masochistic way.

The music may not be the most technically complex, but it doesn't have to be - the message is clear. The complete creation is a grotesque amalgamation that chills the listener. A lot of Death Pierce Me's power comes from how raw and wrong it is - that's were its power comes from. In essence, Silencer were so good at being disturbing that the listener just has to marvel at their work, the fact that its horrifying doesn't matter.

All of this is masterfully executed in my favorite track off the LP “Sterile Needles and Thunderbowels.” After an almost gentle four minutes of staggering screams, Nattramn hacks up phlegm and the music triples in speed. The listener is now on a brakeless locomotive about to splatter against a massive wall of concrete.

What’s almost as interesting as the music is the backstory behind the lead singer. The band split after only one demo and this one LP because Nattramn was institutionalized. Why he was thrown in the crazy-house (Swedish: Crazy Hus) I do not know, but there are rumors of him raping a young girl, cutting off his own hands and attaching pigs’ hooves to them and a bunch of other ungodly crap that is unverified. Apparently he’s out and working on a new project, but only time will tell with that one.

I picked up this album based purely on a recommendation and I had no idea what I was in for. To this day when I listen to it I am flipped upside down and turned inside out.

Review originally written for my tumblr: http://catesatomicgarden.tumblr.com/

I guess you could call Silencer's first and only record the "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" of the "DSBM" scene - an initialism representing depressive/suicidal black metal (of all things...I know) - because it is frequently hailed a masterpiece among a strong circle of black metal fans due to the band's laughably-frenzied biography and musical direction, bluntly speaking. For a general prerequisite, I think most depressive black metal is like contracting syphilis from a cactus, and the general hype around Silencer being "totally sinister and insane" a preposterous reason to become epileptic and randomly shit and piss everywhere like you've reached some spiritual bliss. "Death-Pierce Me" is not a horrible release, but it certainly overloads from a multitude of hindering qualities: good riffs are beaten into the ground for way too long, there isn't much variation, and the record itself is systemically banal at heart. Listening to this makes me realize the world is very depressing, because "Death-Pierce Me" remains typically one-dimensional and yields nothing of interest beyond a few moments of mundane amusement despite piles and piles of false hype.

As for mundane amusement, Silencer has a keen ability to actually stamp strong riffs, apply decent instrumentation, and produce an ambience that will keep you awake unlike other depressive/suicidal black metal groups. The record itself is quite atmospheric, yet the overall sound is sharp at helm: nimble tremolo riffs, smashing percussion with a lot of speed, and flexing bass lines make up the witch's brew. While Silencer's formula isn't harmful at bay, the band just becomes abnormally predictable beyond any sense of rejuvenation. The record itself contains just six tracks running for fifty minutes in totality, with an identical formula applied to each major track that causes Silencer's decent sections to erode away by the second or third listen. Once this settled in, "Death-Pierce Me" was as good as done in my book.

Not much really happens outside of the ten-minute songs that have a few separate sections and end up cycling around endlessly besides a keyboard introduction here and there. I guess a lot of this stuff is just...there. I don't get any emotional response or feel sad (is that the point?) or whatever; it's just a boring CD. And yea, the vocals are disturbing and maniacal, and probably the finest part of Silencer's algorithm: Nattramn's voice jumps from a deafening, painful shriek to a strangling whimper of some sort, that, in a bizarre way, gives Silencer brief and swift justice to these songs and makes the record at least listenable when everything else is quickly blacking out. Would Silencer's legacy remain this revolutionary and enormous had it not been for Nattramn's vocals? "I'll take it to the lab for further analysis," a wise man once said.

I'd be lying if I said all of "Death-Pierce Me" is bland: "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels" contains some excellent riffs and instrumental sections, whereas the title track, although a bit too long, does a lot better than the other two-thirds of "Death-Pierce Me." The concluding "Feeble are You - Sons of Sion" is actually a pretty cool way to shut down "Death-Pierce Me," but when an instrumental piano-track emits more content than three songs that take up half of the record's material, things are bound to get a bit burnt when the meat hits the grill, so to speak. All in all, the rumors about Silencer's biography are much more entertaining than Silencer's music. You can talk about those "tortured moans of depressive agony" all you want, but that doesn't change the hard truth: "Death-Pierce Me" is a lackluster effort with nothing but hype and boring formulas within its walls.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Scandinavia is loaded with many of the famous and infamous black metal bands that most extreme metalheads really know about. Though, what category does Silencer really fall into? With so much hate, and so much love, are they famous or infamous? Well, in my honest opinion, they should be revered as a very influential band as their music is of such high quality. Silencer is at the top of the food chain for many of my expectations.

First off, I'd like to address Nattramn's vocal style. If you are one who has jumped on the bandwagon and refuses to listen on the basis that he sounds like a 'dying cat', then you are not listening to the music correctly. His style is to show his real mental capacity is running out, and that he's going insane. It makes sense to me that he would use such a falsetto like scream in his music. Usually when I'm frantically angry, my screaming does take a bit of a higher pitch. With Nattramn, his decides to be a black metal version of Rob Halford or someone along those lines. If you are looking at his vocals for pure skills, you may be let down. Though, I still refuse to believe he has no skills. I haven't heard many black metal vocalists who can scream in such a high pitch constantly and maintain it. Nattramn is a damned good vocalist, and I love his work. Another great thing about Nattramn is his lyric writing. A lot of it is very deep, and also a bit disturbing. A great example is in 'Death - Peirce Me'. I mean, anyone calling you out to kill them or rape them really has some sort of an issue, don't you think?

As for the rest of the band, what can you expect? Only concrete music of course. Silencer is not a band easily bashed when it comes to music. Whether being depressive, such as in 'Sterile Nails and Thunder Bowels', or grindcore-fast as in 'I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow', Silencer doesn't lose your attention at any point. I especially like the more depressive stuff. The guitar has a very nice effect going on (possibly from a pedal), which gives it a sound which is a little muffled. Muffled in such a way that it sounds like it is put into the background. I really like what it does to the overall sound, as well as its boost to the bass guitar. With this effect, the bass guitar is clearly audible in the mix. Though, even the depressing songs usually have their climax. At some point, they'll decide to turn up the intensity and crank out the tremolo riffs. After some slow, depressive one-note picking, these tremolo riffs are quite refreshing. As for the drumming, Silencer isn't an all blast beat band, as many of the aggressive black metal bands are. There's a ton of nice filling and speed changes, I'm not a drummer, but it sounds technical enough to me. I'd also like to point out that the keyboard work on 'Feeble you are, Sons of Scion' and 'The Slow Kill in the Cold' are amazing. Sometimes I'll replay the songs repeatedly because they sound so dark and depressive. Grade-A ambient work.

As you can tell, Silencer really knew how to mix it up. Whether it was depressive guitar work, creepy ambiance, or aggressive black metal it was worth every second of my time to listen to it. All arguments that the vocals ruin the music are really unjustified, in my opinion. Every part of this album comes together and is worth the forty-nine minutes it takes to listen to the entire thing. This album should be appealing to many times of black metal fans, but I'll just leave it at 'go and get this'. It's pure awesome.

Silencer made its first appearance circulating in the Swedish underground somewhere between 1998 and 2000: thankfully the album has been reissued on CD and is now available for sale and/or piracy to a much wider audience.

Silencer will go down as a classic one-album innovator the likes of Thergotten (different genre obviously but same sort of legacy.) Death Pierce Me reverberates with an extremely unstable and ultimately unsustainable energy that almost necessitates the dissolution of the catalyst band after its completion. The only Black Metal parallel that comes to mind is that of Per Yngve Ohlin’s brief stint with Mayhem: a short-lived burst of extreme, self-destructive creativity. (On a side-note, it does my heart good to see another Swede shake up the scene which Norwegians too often claim as their own exclusive birthright.)

The lead singer Nattramn suffers from a documented, very real, and very poignant psychosis: here channeled into an extremely emotive vocal style which sounds at-once both laughably maudlin and brutally severe: genuinely threatening and, at the same time, pathetically vulnerable. Fans of Bethlehem’s Dictus Te Necare will find the style somewhat familiar: indeed, some reports suggest that Bethlehem and Silencer share some band members.

The instrumentals are featured lower in the mix and have been criticized for being “dull,” especially in contrast to Nattramn’s vocals. Despite these and other caveats, the musicians in the group are really quite excellent. The guitar-work and drumming alike both align themselves with the experimental quality of the lyrics: none of the songs on this album are typical Black Metal fair. Musically, the guitar-work wanders in style from death-like chugging to thrash-like use of the whammy-bar, reverb effect, and polychromatic "solos." The drumming likewise dabbles in sections of death-like circular beats and more conventional rhythms.

Ultimately, much of the failure of this album to abide by BM standards must be in some way related to stylistic pressures felt from without, viz. so called “scream-o” style of certain hardcore outfits and the sub-genre of Slipknot/Pumkinhead-ish nu-metal bands, themselves hitting a high-water mark at the time of this album’s conception. Since the heady days of the early 90’s, Black Metal has either largely resisted outside influences or (as in the case of post-Araseth Mayhem and contemporary Darkthrone) given precedence to “attitude” over stylistic dogma. The effect of this trend has been to limit the amount of innovation in the genre as a whole, with many groups either wandering far from the mark in the pursuit of better sales or else clinging to hypnotic reiteration of past ideas in the pursuit of better underground credit. Silencer represents the next generation of Black Metal musicians: separated by time from the formative events of the early 90’s and with their own musical inheritance: the late 90’s/early 2000’s. Fans of the style should be pleased to hear that it is indeed surviving into the new decade, even if they dislike the changes which Death Pierce Me has initiated, and even if they greatly prefer other contemporary offerings.

This is a Suicidal Black Metal album. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, it basically means that the albums goal is atmosphere. Suicidal Black Metal tries to fill you with as much depression and despair as is possible. There are two main groups in Suicidal Black Metal, each with its own ‘leader’ of sorts. One group, led by Xasthur focuses solely on the atmosphere. While their music may have interesting moments, it lives solely for the atmosphere that it creates. Their music is stripped of all standard elements and reduced to what basically equates to ambient with metal instruments. The other school, led by Leviathan also strives for atmosphere, but they keep a few other parts of traditional music along with them for the ride. They have some heavy sections and the like thrown in for variety. Both schools can work very well when done correctly…or fail miserably.

If you’ve never heard it, this may sound boring to you. I encourage you, to at least give it a try. Well done Suicidal Black Metal has an effect that only Funeral Doom and it can initiate, and it is truly unique.

A few days ago, I was reading a Xasthur interview. The interviewer asked him a question about what he was listening to lately. Malefic (of Xasthur) responded, with this band. Immediately, I knew I had to get them.

The album cover was interesting and Silencer seemed like such a perfect name for a band of this style. I’d heard that Nattramn had been forcibly admitted into a psych hospital – and that added a touch of creepiness and truth to the whole affair.

The first track, like all the others, opens with an introduction done with non metal instruments. Quite a few of them are done with a piano, and there are others with instruments that I don’t recognize. While starting every song the same way may sound monotonous, it works perfectly here. The album, like almost all Suicidal Black Metal, is meant to be listened to straight through. So instead of the different songs being true songs, they are more like parts of a whole. In that sense, the interludes work perfectly to separate the parts.

After the interludes, the more ‘metal’ portion of the song begins. The instruments are done very well; they are very melodic and depressing. This band is more in the Leviathan camp than the Xasthur, their music contains numerous heavier riffs which serve to break up the music very well. The majority of them are sometimes even headbangable, something very rare in this genre. The latter portion of Sterile Nails and Thunderbolts is a good example to this. Tremelo picked riffs are certainly not a rarity here, as they comprise the majority of the riffs on this album. Most of them are done well. The bass has a fairly decent presence (most notably the introduction to Taklamakan) and the drums are good, although they never venture too far away from a safe blast beat.

In Suicidal Black Metal (and Funeral Doom, as the two are very similar in many ways) bands are forced to straddle a thin line. Not enough repetition and the atmosphere won’t come through. Too much, and the music becomes boring. Silencer has just the right amount on this album. A riff will play until you are enveloped by it, then it will be replaced by another riff. To break up the monotony there are frequent heavy breaks (as mentioned earlier) and in some songs there is an interlude in the middle, with the ambient types of instruments from the beginning.

By now you are probably fairly curious. Why did I give this such a low rating, yet praise almost every aspect of it? The answer is simple, the vocals. Yes, they really are that bad.

They sound like a cat. A dying cat. Or, perhaps there is a better analogy. Remember Varg’s vocals on his debut? They were tortured wails and shrieks, odd and abrasive, yet they fit the music. Now imagine Varg in prison. As he is trying to practice his tortured wails, an inmate comes us behind him and begins to rape him. As he is being raped Varg continues to sing. That is something like what these vocals sound like.

They are not always that bad. They alternate between a fairly faimilar shriek, to a distorted whisper (used to great effect in the last portion of Taklamakan) to the dying cat vocals (used in pretty much every song) to a weird gurgle whine (Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels being the worst offender). The first is fine, the second is actually very cool and the third and fourth are the worst vocals I’ve ever heard. I’m not exaggerating; they are truly painful to listen to. I’ve heard better vocals from pitch-shifted gurglers (Cock and Ball Torture).

Normally, vocals aren’t too big a deal for me. I listen to countless bands that pig squeal or use pitch shifters or shriek and choke into the mic, but there is a big difference here. Those bands were going for heaviness, brutality, speed and the like. Here, the goal is atmosphere. It is impossible to feel depressed and enveloped by the music when the singer is a fucking suffocating feline. It ruins any atmosphere the music might otherwise have had, and without the atmosphere, their isn’t much left.

This album could have been great, equal to the likes of Xasthur, Draugar and Leviathan. The music is easily worth an 85 or more. Unfortunately, the singer is so fucking atrocious that he ventures far into the territory marked ‘unbearable.’ Without the atmosphere, this music is stilted and lifeless. I don’t recommend this to fans of Suicidal Black Metal as the vocals kill any semblance of feeling and if you are new to the genre, I strongly recommend that you check out either Leviathan or Xasthur.

si·lenc·er sər
[sahy-luhn-ser]
–noun
1. a person or thing that silences.
2. a device for deadening the report of a firearm.
3. Chiefly British. the muffler on an internal-combustion engine.

None of these things are particularly metal, but I'm willing to bet the third one sounds better than "Death - Pierce me."

I'll expound on Nattramn's infamously trite vocal performance right away. It would be far too easy to say, "OMZGS, hE SOUNDS LIEK A DYING CAT, OMGZ DIS SUXXCKZ." And while that may be true, attributing bizarreness to low quality is a pop mentality. Where Nattramn fails is his powerlessness and static tonality. His voice can basically be pigeonholed into two categories: an eardrum-shattering shriek, which transforms all of the abstract, self-pitying lyrics into "NYYYEEEEAAARRGHHHH," and a pitiful sobbing whimper executed in a failed attempt at emotional intensity. (Unless you consider wanting to jump into the record to say "it's alright, have a cookie" emotionally intense.) Sometimes he mixes these two techniques in various degrees, the results being various degrees of failure. It's easy to wail like a banshee, but it's hard to make it effective in juxtaposition with one's musical vision, and if you can't, you shouldn't bother. Once in a while, Nattramn attempts a generic raspy hacking style of vocals, which is where his previously mentioned powerlessness really hurts him. Second wave black metal bands didn't get churches burning by lazily growling "slay the fucking lion of Juda" like the Cookie Monster on helium.

The main problem with Silencer's songwriting is that it's too formulaic. For the most part, the songs follow this formula: a depressive acoustic, piano, or Goblin-esque synth intro (some of which are genuinely somber and provocative, but it barely matters since they're rarely central components of the songs), then one unrelated riff kicking in and restating itself through the entire song with a discordant guitar or french horn synth counterpoint melody nonchalantly tacked on. Some of the songs are laced with meandering piano interludes and industrial samples for an artificially inflated sense of variation, but if that's necessary, why not just write better music?

The utterly alien melody at the beginning of "Taklamakan" is probably the best moment of the album. Perhaps that's because Nattramn keeps his damn mouth shut throughout most of it, but it's pretty good nonetheless. However, this one potential bit of glory is stetched into a tedious loop of inanity as the melody is used as a counterpoint to a generic, Burzumic black metal tremolo riff for over seven fucking minutes. Silencer singlehandedly taught the new wave of American black metal abortions like Xasthur and Leviathan that 10 minute long songs automatically equal structural maturity, and for that I'll never forgive them.
But hey, did they write good song titles or what? While the song sucks, "Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels" may have the best name EVER. Does it not conjure images of someone shooting nails out of their ass?

I've always been of the opinion that mediocre art is one of the most harmful things one can produce against his culture. Apparently Silencer take this stance one step further, thinking horrible musicians should die; in the album's booklet, they proudly proclaim "we are ready to leave this place!" Well, please do!

Blacker than pitch, the moment the noise from this incomparably lugubric album touches your ears, or even as soon as you see the album cover, you know this will be no ordinary trip, and that something horrific is about to start. I will mention now that there is probably no collection of songs more perfectly arranged, produced and grimly collected on disc and listened to by yours truly, than this piece of black metal history.

The album starts with a nice drum fill provided by skilled session drummer Steve Walz (now of Bethlehem) and clean guitar lines by this individual known as Leere. The serenity is soon broken by the shrieks of Nattramn. No doubt you’ve heard something about his vocal style so no more to add on that issue… The deeply layered first track sweeps and weaves around itself, continuing to build up and take you voyaging through this unusual soundscape until that sinister piano line starts. This song just sounds like you’re cold and beaten on the floor of some gothic styled building, forgotten and THANKFULLY bleeding to death. The rest of the songs keep in perfect progression of feeling and take you through: the sadness of track two, the frantic angst of track three, the gloomy and sinister nature of the fourth track, then the fifth track starts. This song, “I shall lead, you shall follow” is probably the best one on the album. The conclusion of the album both musically and lyrically, there is no part cooler and more bad assed in any metal song than when Nattramn growls “slay the fucking lion of juda!

You can basically expect excessively grim black metal, there are no folk parts, no Viking chants, and this isn’t a fucking concerto. It is true sinister black metal forged from two individual minds of obscurity writing black metal because this is the only way these feelings could be expressed and not because they simply thought the black metal aesthetic was cool. In the vein of second wave Norwegian bands, but using modes and notes that have never been used before. Each riff is repeated just the right number of times, every vocal line is in just the right place and every piano/synth part is very gloomy indeed, but the songs still seem to out-do each other and lead in a logical direction to the end of the album.

This album is unlike any other. Un-matched in it’s devastating atmosphere, notes placed together, and insane poetry sweep through your mind and soul like some kind of being of total sinister hatred that will rob you of hope that you will ever experience pleasure again. These songs are composed in such an epic and bleak way, that they pass beyond what you could describe as an emotional listen. Digging deeper through your mind and ego these songs explore the shapeless essence of your being, and although they will probably evoke feelings of total grim sadness and spectral-despair, it seems that “death-pierce me” will in fact pierce how you think your mind exists, to the core of your soul. In that space a void will appear, there will either be nothing to find, in which case I suggest you destroy your-self, or your feet will touch the soil again. Unfortunately due to the fucking insanity of this album chances are neither of these will occur and you will be left in obscure, profound and lost depression.

Although this album is out of this world and there is much more you can potentially gain from it than mere entertainment by virtue of musical creativeness… this IS an album review, so I can basically recommend this album to any member of humanity, and although many people will basically not understand it, it will be a night of grimness certainly. The 100% is justified by my grim opinion that for me there is simply no way this album could be improved. I have gotten so much from this recording in the two odd years I have owned it. I still listen to it at least once a week.
Beyond mind is sleep to be found, and this is indeed an album to destroy yourself too! My only solution is the cosmic conclusion!

Sinister. Evil. Insane. Those are the three words that come to mind when I think of Silencer. This black metal outfit from Sweden comes out firing with a full length version of ‘Death – Pierce Me’, three years after their rather unknown demo of the same name.

With high-pitched tortured vocals, numerous haunting dark ambient, piano and acoustic interludes, Silencer are able to convey a feeling of sorrow and anguish within their music. The vocals are by far the most potent and outstanding aspect of this album and frankly, it doesn’t surprise me that Nattramn was institutionalised after this release. His tormented and unsettling vocals are a display of the pure disgust, pain, misery and lunacy that he has most likely been subject to throughout his life. There is no better way to put all these emotions on show than on a black metal album of this type. I guess that these vocals could be put up against the well-respected shrieks of ‘Rainer Landfermann’, in the amount of sheer insanity of the performances.

Sometimes it feels like the instrumental aspects of the music are a bit weak (especially the black metal parts, that seem to quite repetitive after time), putting too much pressure on the Nattramn’s vocals. Luckily enough, his vocal effort is superb but it is still does not prevent this from being the most eminent error on the album.

Not only is Nattramn’s vocal act disturbing, but the picture included in the album booklet is one of the most screwed up band member pictures I have ever seen. Nattramn is slouching against a wall, covered in blood and making an unusual hand gesture with his (apparently) disfigured hands. His face is devoid of detail, and is covered with what seems to be blood-soaked corpse paint or bandages. This is a kind of band picture that even (the old) Mayhem would have been proud of and reflects the pure evil that is ‘Death – Pierce Me’.

It’s a shame that this band had to split up after such a fantastic release. This album is highly recommended to fans of unnerved, dark and totally insane black metal. I cannot envision a black metal fan being majorly disappointed by this release.

This album was not a disappointment to me. I've heard many good things about this album, and they were true. From the moment I put this into my player, I was hooked. The first song opened up with a soothing, yet dark, piano piece. I was actually thinking this would be an ambient kind of music, but then those feelings of peace were suddenly ripped away from me as I heard the wailing of Nattramn. Shivers will be sent up the spine of anyone who is not prepared for the damned voice of Nattramn.

The vocals are the strong points. During the first song, Nattramn uses a wailing, howling scream for his lyrics. The second song, he sounds like a dying Yoda. During the rest of the album, he sounds as if he was the incarnation of insanity and sadism. Every song has its soothing and disturbing parts. It is as if he wants to rip any feelings of peace out of you through his music. This is not a album for wimps.

The guitar riffs are pretty much nothing but power chords, which isn't surprising. Occasionally, you will hear an acoustic accompaniment with the piano, which adds on great. The guitars are obviously drop-tuned to get the dark feel. They may not be the most talented riffs in the world, but they fit the music well.

Overall, this is a very well-done album. I recommend it to any fans of Bethlehem, Xasthur, or Nortt. You will not be disappointed by this album. I must warn that this is not something for easy listening. You will not find this to be your typical "head-banging" metal album.

Being always on the lookout for bands seemingly dwelling in obscurity but nonetheless of high quality and definitely worth listening to, I stumbled across this darkened threnody of an album. Very few bands are even on the same league in terms of sheer insanity and chaotic fluidity encapsulated in this piece of music tentatively entitled 'Death, Pierce Me'; a title tentative and yet revealing of what is to follow upon placing this disc in your CD player. The first track starts with a smooth and reassuring piano piece before the incipient signs of insanity scythe through at full blast. The wailing, penetrating and ear-piercing cries of Nattramn burrow through the ear drum leaving you in an initial state of surprise before you finally become habituated to his unrivaled vocal delivery. Melodious and sweeping guitar riffage which always move on frenetic rhythms exacerbate all our mental wounds and leave the senses in a state of dread and alarm. Cleaner piano passages sporadically crop out assuaging the wounds made by this audial assault before we are once again plunged into madness as if being carried on an emotional roller coaster. The vocalist is screaming, crying, choking, doing anything humanly possible through his vocal chords; he is not imitating nor is he putting any effort to do so, this is a person who is genuinely in psychic torment. This is an album which at first take you must press the replay button to re-assure yourself that what you heard was actually real. Black metal? Perhaps.. But this album delves in so many levels that labeling its uncompromising and subversive sound, makes the tag seem mundane and insufficient. This is the soundtrack of meditative suicide, a never ending damning to bottomless perdition, the tormented cries of the damned; what more is to say truly?