The Silverblack – The Grand Turmoil – Album Review

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Drifting perilously close to the edge of Worship Metal ‘acceptability’ the industrialised, borderline dub-step, aggro-pop of The Silverblack landed in our laps and while our initial reaction was to simply say “no thanks”, we persevered with minds open and assumptions cast aside. Let’s give this a fair trial we resolved.

Atari Teenage Riot, Korn’s relatively recent dabblings with dub-step, the pioneering sounds of Al Jourgensen’s Ministry and the more elaborate electronica side of Marilyn Manson are obvious parallels but the ‘metal’ element makes up a small percentage of what’s happening here. The vocals – think the aforementioned Marilyn Manson at his most caustic – prove endearing but that’s often the heaviest factor of The Silverblack’s sound.

That’s not to say The Grand Turmoil doesn’t have its moments, in a Korn’s “Narcissistic Cannibal” kind of way, but the “you won’t fuck me anymore” refrain of “Anymore” is plain annoying and cringeworthy and for the duration of the album it’s hard to ascertain the audience The Silverblack are aiming for. The video for “The Grand Turmoil” adheres to all the metal cliches – long haired aggressive musicians pulling the obligatory gurning faces -but it’s all at odds with the actual music.

We’re blatantly the wrong audience for this. By no means do The Silverblack lack merit, we’re just not sure of how to judge that merit as it’s so far out of our remit. From a strictly rock/metal perspective our conclusion is not positive but if you find yourself drifting towards the ‘poppier’ side of industrialised gothic Euro-metal then you may find our score a little harsh.

Not that we give a shit. 4/10