I’m not entirely sold on giving every band who has the occasional electro-synth cavalcade and a female at the helm the Gothic tag. Sometimes it is as though the labels and the bands forget what Goth music essentially is and indeed was, and tag things that are simply metal / rock orientated as such in an attempt to sell more records. I would put Elysion in this category as despite the band name (think Fields Of The Nephilim albums), the sleeve artwork and the fact that the band have at one point supported Christian Death there is not a particular ‘Gothic’ orientation to their sound. Perhaps I am trying to take this too far and will end up sounding like one of the purist fighting factions attending the likes of WGW (Whitby Goth Weekend) but that’s the way I see it.

This does not mean that ‘Silent Scream’ is not a good album, do not get me wrong. It is a solid combination of strong female fronted metal, rock and even pop sensibilities. The opening bars of opener ‘Dreamer’ do have that aforementioned keyboard sound which is all a bit Flowing Tears but this makes way for a guitar driven metallic backbone and the vocals of singer Christianna. Formed by Johnny Zero in 2006 this is the Greek bands debut album and although his programming does at times suggest a darkwave dynamic it seems that the songs are all quickly taken over by the powerful performance of the singer who is confident, sassy and bold with her parts. Melody is strong and makes up for the fact that this is far from original stuff. Songs do their best to get into your head and take over and some do succeed, albeit by persistent vocal repetition. Ballsy guitar playing backs this all up and the drumming is fine too but what we essentially have here is a very good singer backed up by an efficient band, something that this year seems to have been flooded by as far as female fronted bands are concerned. The lovelorn ballad ‘Weakness In Your Eyes’ could be the sort of song belted out by Christina Aguilera and also reminds a bit style wise of last Lacuna Coil album, this certainly has crossover appeal and is quite enjoyable with it.

‘Don’t Say A Word’ is one of the strongest tracks and is driven by the repetitive chorus refrain which is impossible not to end up being swept along by. Backing this up with the Skunk Anansie-ish ‘The Rules’ which sees the middle of the album containing the best numbers and with a soulful edge to the vocals it is again the singer who is the belle of the ball. Sometimes the repetitiveness of the vocals does not work in the songs favour here, after the bleeding chorus of ‘Bleeding’ is flung out for the umpteenth time my nerves are frayed enough to shout out ‘enough already, heard you the first time around’ at the stereo. All in all, this ones a bit of a mixed bag, it’s not the best or worst of its kind I have heard this year, just one of many. For a debut ‘Silent Scream’ is well worth checking out and I suspect that Christianna has a good future ahead of her no matter who she works with as her voice packs a hefty punch and is pretty damn formidable.

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Pete Woods

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