MEMORIAM — The Silent Vigil (review)

Album · 2018 · Death Metal

3/5 · 2019-04-25
UMUR

"The Silent Vigil" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK, Birmingham based death metal act Memoriam. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 2018. It´s the successor to "For The Fallen" from 2017 and features the exact same four-piece lineup who recorded the predecessor. Memoriam formed in 2016 and consists of former and present members of Bolt Thrower, Benediction, and Cerebral Fix. Memoriam released three demos before being signed to Nuclear Blast Records for the release of "For The Fallen (2017)".

Stylistically the material on "The Silent Vigil" continues the old school death metal style of "For The Fallen (2017)", with very few surprises and only a little development of sound. Memoriam are all seasoned veterans on the UK death/thrash metal scene and there is no doubt that they play exactly the style of music that they want to. There´s no intention here to invent the wheel or to incorporate adventurous songwriting ideas, but instead a burning passion to produce good old fashioned death metal like it sounded in the early 1990s. Of course there are variations on that type of death metal too, and Memoriam´s relatively simple heavy and predominantly mid-paced take on the genre isn´t miles away from the output of some of the acts the members are or have been involved with before.

Karl Willetts always had a distinct sounding hoarse but intelligible growling style, which he still has on "The Silent Vigil", although he sounds a little powerless here (I´m not sure if it´s age and wear on the voice or if it´s a conscious choice, but he is a paler shade of his younger self on this release). The riffs and rhythms are relatively simple and the same is true for the song structures. While it works most of the time, "The Silent Vigil" as an album does have a tendency to become a bit one-dimensional, and featuring 10 tracks and full playing time of 57:12 minutes, the album ends up overstaying its welcome by a couple of tracks. If you are going to release an album which is almost an hour long, a little more variation is needed to maintain the listeners attention.

"The Silent Vigil" features a decent sounding production. It´s nothing out of the ordinary for the genre, but it gets the job done and suits the material well. So upon conclusion it´s a solid old school death metal release by Memoriam, but it doesn´t quite hold the potential to be a classic in the genre (few contemporary releases do). Still a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I liked the first one when it was released, but haven´t listened to it since, and this one sounds like a pale version of the debut. I´m not impressed.

Nightfly wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I've not been overly impressed by them yet. They have a new album due any time. 3 albums in 3 years is almost unheard of these days. Hopefully number 3 will be where they nail it.