Thursday, July 31, 2008

SYMPHONITY: Voice From the Silence


Produced by Libor Krivak
Released: 15 August 2008

Symphonic power metal and I don't have the greatest of relationships, so you would have thought that a band called Symphonity was just asking for trouble. After all, the only reason I decided to listen to their album at all is because it was one of only two that came in a recent promo package that didn't have voiceover watermarks all over it (the other one was the latest Journey album, which is one CD I would have expected to have them). Imagine my surprise, then, when I realised that I actually rather enjoyed this.

Formerly known as Nemesis (one of the most overused band names ever), Symphonity is a Czech band whose name immediately tells you what sort of music they play. And on Voice from the Silence they don't exactly stretch the boundaries of symphonic Euro-power metal very far (or at all), but they do string a few decent songs together, have a singer with both a good range and a fairly ballsy style and haven't forgotten that metal is guitar-based music. Originality is not a strong point and many of the songs are outright Gamma Ray/Helloween worship, especially tracks like "Gates of Fantasy" and "Searching You". But Symphonity do it rather more convincingly than most, with some nice touches thrown in like the extended guitar-keyboard duelling in "Give Me Your Helping Hand" and veteran vocalist Olaf Hayer (Dionysus, Luca Turilli, et. al.) is rather more than just a Kai Hansen clone, with a solid mid-range and a good high voice that doesn't sound like he's about to go off-key or stretch too far. The longer tracks are nicely structured and "Evening Star" works towards its extended orchestral section so it fits instead of sounding like it was just chucked in to make it longer or to show how in-tune the band is with their classical side.

Voice from the Silence won't win any points for being groundbreaking or different, but it is a pretty solid entry in its genre and fans of symphonic metal will love it.



  1. La Morale dell' Immorale
  2. Give Me Your Helping Hand
  3. Gates of Fantasy
  4. Bring Us the Light
  5. Salvation Dance
  6. The Silence - Memories (Pt I)
  7. The Silence - In Silence Forsaken (Pt II)
  8. The Silence - Relief Reverie (Pt III)
  9. Searching You
  10. Evening Star
  11. Afterlife

Rating: 65%

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