Search - Silent Civilian :: Rebirth of the Temple

A nice surprise & strong debut

A. Stutheit | Denver, CO USA | 07/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sometimes a singer will leave his current group and go on to start a new band which sounds a lot (or almost exactly) like the old one, so the singer's fans will be left scratching their heads and wondering why he left the first group (consider Chris Barnes' Six Feet Under and Ozzy Osbourne's solo project). That is not the case, here, though. Jonny Santos, ex-frontman of the now defunct Spineshank, left his first band in 2004 and went on to form Silent Civilian, whose debut album, "Rebirth of the Temple," was released in May of this year. But Silent Civilian's comparisons with Spineshank stop at Jonny Santos. Spineshank were a nu/industrial metal group, but SC are definitely much more intense and metalic. Jonny might have had this aggression built up inside of him all these years and was dying to release it, or maybe he just wanted to separate his new band from Spineshank...who knows?! Either way, "Rebirth of the Temple" is still a good C.D..



This disc is clearly influenced by North American metalcore, but, fortunately, these songs are usually heavy and thrashy enough to avoid calling Silent Civilian a baby Killswitch Engage. Most of these songs are full to the brim with scalding energy, catchy, white hot riffs, and fast drums patterns.



The album's first real song, "Funeral," is an awesome one. The verses shoot by with a propulsive, blistering guitar lead, a swift double bass attack and raging vocals. These parts of the song, however, are offset by a catchy, cleanly sung chorus (the first of many to come). And two long, winding, multi-parted guitar solos also flare up. Tracks three and four, "The Song Remains Un-named" and the title track, interlock fiery, chugging riffs with pounding drums and also feature melodic guitar solos. "Divided", which has blowtorch guitars, a pounding rhythm, and a memorable shout-along of "Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!", is another memorable song, and other highlights include the politically motivated "Lies In The House Of Shame", and "Dead To Me 2006," which features pounding guitars and livid lyrics like "screw the world!", and "you're dead to me!"



Some songs, like "Bitter Pill" and "Wrath", have more melody than most of the rest, due to their big choruses. But, conversely, some of this album proves that not every track needs to have melody, because "Force Fed", "First Amendment", and "Falling Down" get by just fine without having any melody or limpid vocals whatsoever. Instead, songs like those ooze with scorching energy, blazing guitars, and powerful, skull-cracking kick drums.



But most of these songs follow the same structure, with an explosive intro segueing into white hot riffs, fast drumming, and raging vocals in the verses and just a hint of melody in the choruses. Thus, the album tends to grow kind of formulaic and monotony eventually becomes a factor. But these songs, especially when taken individually, are still very entertaining and exciting, and should effortlessly kick the butts of open-minded metalheads everywhere.



All in all, even though the metalcore scene ultimately remains largely unmoved, "Rebirth of the Temple" makes for some very enjoyable listening sessions, and is a pleasant surprise and strong, promising debut by Silent Civilian. Here's hoping Jonny didn't use up all of his aggression on this album, and he has it in him to keep making albums of this quality in the future."

Amazing musicianship and vocals hurt by boring, unoriginal s

M. Vernor | Anytown, USA | 05/31/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I, like many people, only heard about this band because of the lead singer Jonny Santos. I was and still am a big fan of his previous band Spineshank. However, as you've proably already read, this band on a completely different area of the musical spectrum. If you are looking for Spineshank 2 you should go elsewhere. Or if everything so far means nothing to you don't let it keep you from missing out on a great band.



Silent Civilian are basically 3 guys (4 at the time of the record's recording) who are looking lay down some great metal and inject a little of their world viewpoint into it, all for our enjoyment. Rebirth of the Temple manages to combine the best of the old-school metal flare with contemporary rawness and aggression. Some may say, "Well, thats been done before." Yesh but not at the level Silent Civilian achieves. Solos and Double-Bass abound this guys play riffs so technical and so unrelenting that almost makes one tired trying keep up with everything.



On top of all this superb musicianship Santos' vocals keep the listener on their toes as he switches flawlessly from screaming to singing then back again. Yes, this too has been done before. However, Santos benefits from being as intelligible when he's screaming as when he's singing. IMO this gives Silent Civilian an edge over many other bands whose vocals sound like a constant barking or even, in some cases, belching. So, since you can understand Santos: is he saying anything worth hearing? Not really... Most of the song's messages directed at George "dubya" or simply about the state of the world and politics at the time. If you have a passion for the subject matter it might be a plus but for the rest of us it's the same gift in a different package.



In the end, Rebirth of the Temple is an excercise of older methods with perfect execution. Sure its been done before, but never so damn well. But with all that talent couldn't they find something a bit more interesting to talk about? I sincerely hope they stick around through 2008 so they can make a record not driven by hate for George W. Bush. Oh well...I guess I've something to look foward to for 2009.



My Official Non-Amazon Rating 8/10"

This is not Spineshank

tarheels907 | 05/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off I was a huge Spineshank fan but what Silent Civilian brings to the table is more than anything I expected. This is a straight forward metal cd. Lots of double bass and awesome guitar work similar to that of Trivium or even Killswitch Engage. One of my favorite things about this cd is the long songs, many of which are for 6 minutes long or more which kinda reminds me of Metallica a little or of course Trivium. Vocals are close to what Jonny did on Spineshank but thats really about it. This is definitely a band that metalheads need to know of. Seriously if your a fan of Trivium,Killswitch Engage or even something like Soilwork or old Metallica then get this cd right away. You wont be dissapointed. The only thing I wish was on this cd was the track "Blood red sky". Great song that for some reason was deleted off the album. No big deal though the cd is amazing. Get it now"