There is something strange about this review… the CD has already been brought out in may 1997 and (unless their other music is vastly different) someone REALLY needs some education in metal genres… ‚Death metal from the heart of Germany‘ says their website. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…. NO! THIS IS NOT DEATH METAL! You need some more than a grunt to earn the name death metal…!
Now that this issue has been handled, I’m going to tell you something about their music. And to my pleasant surprise I must conclude that, even though it’s NOT death metal, it’s still very good!! Silent Souls makes very melancholic, atmospherical metal with a touch of gothic (and okay, maybe a SLIGHT bit of death metal). Behind the Gates of Passion starts with a pleasant intro, that stirrs my interest… and the intro flows over nicely in a very cool song! The grunts might need some working on, but those sparsely used female vocals -no soprano thank god (or satan, if you prefer)- sound pretty damn fine to me! They add a nice touch to the music, aren’t used too much, and they are not false at all, a problem certain other bands do have. The most amazing thing in her vocals is that she does not have a very disturbing German accent, something lots of other German singers have a lot of problems with. In the second song I’m hearing something very familiar and it took me a few moments to realize what this was: the grunts here make the song sound somewhat like Dark Tranquillity (the CD ‚Haven‘). I have the same feeling in the last song. This last song, called ‚Rain‘ is truly a pearl, and the best song on this album, shortly followed by ‚Withered One‘ and the first part of the opening song ‚Behind the gates‘ (excluding the intro). This song manages to capture the emotion rain brings about in people if they are in the right mood. Very good!
As a whole, the level of quality is not entirely consistend, unfortunatly. There are a lot of good parts, but also some weaker pieces of music. With a bit more variety the score would be higher. Sometimes it gets really dreamy, straying off far from being metal, but they always come back on the path. If you like melancholic, nostalgic metal this might be something for you. Check out http://www.silent-souls.de/ and download the album yourself. Just don’t mind the site saying it’s deathmetal ;-)
8/10 Points – reviewed by Bloodreaver
official Website: http://www.silent-souls.de