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Silverstein

Transitions EP

Written by: TL on 21/12/2010 15:51:45

A few years ago, when Silverstein released their third album "Arrivals & Departures", I was starting to think that the band was stagnating, efficiently producing 'more of the same' kind of material, only with less stellar highlights. Fortunately for us all, the Canadian quintet upped the ambition, both in terms of material and production on the following "A Shipwreck In The Sand" effectively blowing the "where is the band headed" question wide open again. The answer, for the time being is; off Victory records and onto Hopeless and Universal to create another LP, but while we're all waiting for that, the band decided to release this appropriately titled "Transitions EP" to keep us all interested.

Those hoping for any hints of new things to come on the next LP however, will be rather disappointed, since the three new songs of the EP's five total are have similar vibes as the ones on "Arrivals & Departures". It's business as usual for Silverstein. Metalcore dynamics dominate the guitar playing, with semi-heavy riffs mingling with simplistic melodies, while vocalist Shane Told alternates between screams and cleans, sounding no different than he did on "Shipwreck..".

This works as well as ever on "Sacrifice", which sounds very "Your Sword Vs. My Dagger", and the same can be said about the slightly more aggresive "Dancing On My Grave". Those two immediately seem a bit better than the remaining new song, the softer "Darling Harbour", but in all honesty, that could be a matter of personal preference, given that I've always found that Silverstein were best when making the most of their heavy/melodic dynamic. My only real complaint is that production seems to be scaled back a bit from the level of the "Shipwreck.." songs, which is a shame because those had a new feeling of "oomph" that was instrumental in taking Silverstein up a level from "Arrivals.."

Of the two remaining songs, one is an acoustic version of a track called "Replace You", which again, is fairly straight-forward Silverstein. It's catchy and it hints of the improvements Told has made on his cleans since the band's early days, but other than that, it's still doesn't cross out of 'enjoyable' and into 'exciting'. The last song on offer is rather by-the-numbers cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Wish", and while it would be unfair to say that Silverstein ruin it, they really don't manage to render the song with any kind of attitude, compared to the original.

All in all, my impression of "Transitions EP" is that it is nothing less and nothing more than Silverstein simply letting us know that they're alive and kicking. The content doesn't exactly exceed any expectations for the band, but they could conceivably be just saving the fireworks for the full length. And the songs at least aren't getting worse. So if you're a fan of the band, there's no reason not to include this in your collection, and yet, if you aren't, then you should be mega-sorry to skip it either (especially seeing as at least two of the songs are going to be on the album as well).

Download: Sacrifice
For The Fans Of: Hawthorne Heights, Yashin, Conditions, Alesana
Listen: myspace.com/allends

Release Date 15.10.2010
Nuclear Blast / Sony Music