Silverstein "shipwreck in the sand" (album review)

I have to ask myself the question, can Silverstein actually make a bad album? (listens to the album) .. No! they bloody well cant. For those not in the know Silverstein are a post-hardcore band from Canada & have a punk element to their tracks, some even say they are a screamo band..some say they are just rock with a lot of emotion. Whatever they are they sure do know how keep the hits coming & coming. Albums like “discovering the waterfront” & “arrivals & departures” really turned me onto the band & I haven’t stopped listening since then. Whichever Silverstein album I listen to there seems to always be a seriously addictive track on there & for me this time around it was “the end” which features an incredible duet with the Canadian singer known as Lights - the vocals between the two singers is really something else & lyrics really just speak for themselves, after listening to the song I started to listening to some of Lights work & now I’m hooked on her too!. So the new album is called “shipwreck in the sand”, a concept album split into four chapters that loosely follow the story of people looking for the ultimate successes & prosperity in a new world but in the end they give into the temptations of sin when the reality doesn’t live up to the expectations of their dreams. It really has so much heart & rock mixed into it that it will be anything but shipwrecked, in the past Silverstein have sold a whopping 750,000 albums & its no surprise really. with every album they bring a level of passion & energy to the music that it really is over whelming.

The opening track "a great fire" is no different delivering just what the fans were craving, its fast & hard yet extremely addictive, other tracks include “I am the arsonist” & the slightly lighter “born dead” which starts of heavy but blends into a smoother calmer song, but like I said before the track which stands out the most in my view has to be “the end”. I love when a band that’s traditionally male features a strong female artist it’s the ultimate in a musical relationship & in this song you can feel the energy from each artist propel the album through to its final minutes - much like the characters featured in the albums story, one of the best endings I have ever heard. Silverstein have done it again with “shipwreck in the sand”, if you have not listened to the band before then this is the album to start you off - as for the fans they wont be disappointed. Its early days yet but I can see this being one of my favourite albums of 2009.

Other similar bands: senses fail, hawthorne heights, rise against, thursday, a day to remember, a skylit drive, underoath, bless this fall, alesana, norma jean, thrice, escape the faith.