Search - Silencer :: Death - Pierce Me

Never has a band captured grief and misery and loneliness so

Aquarius Records | San Francisco | 07/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Silencer are spoken of with hushed reverence, and for good reason. Death - Pierce Me is dark and damaged, grim and suicidal miserablist doom-drenched black metal of the highest order. Talk to any of the current crop of the black metal elite, Wrest from Leviathan, Malefic from Xasthur, and they will fawn unabashedly over Silencer.



Thankfully, Autopsy Kitchen have stepped up and rescued this all time black classic from oblivion. And now you can finally experience one of the original black cults who expressed their blackened misery through impossibly anguished vocals. Hysterical shrieks, frenzied and overwrought howls of absolute terror. Never has a band captured grief and misery and loneliness so perfectly and in such an utterly frightening way.



But it's not just the vocals, the music is completely intense and seething as well, with an unrestrained turbulence, dense and buzzing and so emotional and personal and overwhelming. Heart rending minor key melodies emeshed in black swirls of buzz, the riffing so intense and totally manic, exposing a tortured inner world wrought with drama and tension, a dark soul exposed, a damaged personal hell expressed through shriek and buzz. The anguished blasts of blackness are separated by dark doomy ambient passages, from simple mournful acoustic guitar to droney piano fugues to simple melodic doom metal minimalism, but when the riffs and the vocals kick in, a huge brutal blackness dropping on you from above, it's the sort of musical moment that gives you chills, makes your hair stand up on end, and in the right frame of mind makes you want to just break down.



Which is precisely why Silencer and Death - Pierce Me are so revered, this record set the template for ALL depressive suicidal black metal to follow, and while some have come close, Xasthur and Nortt certainly, there is just something so special, and so utterly frightening about this record that keeps anyone from ever capturing the same black musical world of abject fear and unmitigated misery."

PURE SUICIDAL BLISS

Internal Abbatoir | Albuquerque, NM | 12/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you ever feel like ending it all you should have this record playing in the background. This record is so grim and depressing that even the most optimistic of individuals will feel like useless pieces of trash after listening to it. And yeah, one could say that this music wallows in self-pity, but it seems like the anger and the sadness of the vocalist is aimed more towards humanity itself. Not to mention that this music deals with the complete destruction of the individual. Of course, this CD is plagued with feelings of self-loathing, but unlike so many so-called suicidal bands and bands that sing about suicide, the feelings here seem to be LEGITIMATE. Silencer is truly a miserable experience, indeed! For the most part, this music can be compared to the likes of Shining and Nocturnal Depression, but everything seems to be ten shades darker and more depressing. The one thing that is worth noting about this release is how unique the vocals are... For some people, they WILL be an automatic turn off. The vocals are "high pitched" blood curdling screams. At times, it sounds like the main vocalist (Nattramn) is having a mental breakdown. Indeed, it was even rumored that he was "institutionalized" after the release of this CD.



Silencer will take you into a world where there is no hope.



This is one for the masochists."