German band Deafening Opera is not a name that sounds familiar to me. Although the band already released two full albums; Synesteria in 2009 and Blueprint that hails from 2013 Deafening Opera remains a secret to me. So let's unveil the secret and see what Let Silence Fall brings us. Deafening Opera is a Munich based sextet that consists of vocalist Adrian Daleore, guitarists Moritz Kunkel and Thomas Moser, keyboard player Gérald Marie, bass player Christian Eckstein and drummer Konrad Gonschorek. Musically the band pursues the path of dedicated progressive rock with a noticeable German touch. When the album starts, we are treated with two separate instrumental intro's; Prologue, a short subtle piano driven track that through a soundscape type of section turns into a very interesting composition; Deafening Overture. A nice balance between keyboards and guitars leads towards a majestic guitar solo. The first vocal track; Down The River has a much darker sound and the tension is nicely built towards the entrance of vocalist Adrian. Musically this is a great track, nothing new around the sun, I know, but still a very decent composition. It's the vocal parts I have to get used to, can't find out why, yet. Amber Light continues, musically challenging and filled with great solo part, but again the vocals sound too soft, too sweet for the songs. The weird opera ending of the song could suit to the album's theme, but is not really adding something on the musical level. Halfway through The Tempest I might have a suggestion what might be happening on Let Silence Fall. Vocalist Adrian takes the whole album as one big musical, but sorry to say, his voice it not prominent enough to carry the still very acceptable compositions. During the more powerful track Sundown the vocal/ music combination doesn't seem to bother that much, ending this track as one of my favourites. Where Adrian totally deserves his credits is during the acoustically track As Night And Day Collide, I guess this is the kind of music that suits him the best. The final three compositions combine smoother parts with precious heavier segments. Nice, but no more. Although I like the musical aspect of Let Silence Fall, it's the vocals that have a hard time catching up with the adventurous compositions. For me the album could have used more balls and a kick in the nuts to make it stand out, now Deafening Opera remains is the shadows, lurking to take the step out. ***+ Pedro Bekkers (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
