Welcome to the lair of the Heladiva warrior: On Request

Saturday, October 13, 2007

On Request

Artist: Silencer

Country: Sweden

Genre: Ambient/Black Metal

Album: Death - Pierce Me (2001)

Sinister. Evil. Insane. Those are the three words that come to mind when I think of Silencer. This black metal outfit from Sweden comes out firing with a full length version of ‘Death – Pierce Me’, three years after their rather unknown demo of the same name.With high-pitched tortured vocals, numerous haunting dark ambient, piano and acoustic interludes, Silencer are able to convey a feeling of sorrow and anguish within their music.

The vocals are by far the most potent and outstanding aspect of this album and frankly, it doesn’t surprise me that Nattramn was institutionalised after this release. His tormented and unsettling vocals are a display of the pure disgust, pain, misery and lunacy that he has most likely been subject to throughout his life. There is no better way to put all these emotions on show than on a black metal album of this type. I guess that these vocals could be put up against the well-respected shrieks of ‘Rainer Landfermann’, in the amount of sheer insanity of the performances.

Sometimes it feels like the instrumental aspects of the music are a bit weak (especially the black metal parts, that seem to quite repetitive after time), putting too much pressure on the Nattramn’s vocals. Luckily enough, his vocal effort is superb but it is still does not prevent this from being the most eminent error on the album.Not only is Nattramn’s vocal act disturbing, but the picture included in the album booklet is one of the most screwed up band member pictures I have ever seen. Nattramn is slouching against a wall, covered in blood and making an unusual hand gesture with his (apparently) disfigured hands. His face is devoid of detail, and is covered with what seems to be blood-soaked corpse paint or bandages.

This is a kind of band picture that even (the old) Mayhem would have been proud of and reflects the pure evil that is ‘Death – Pierce Me’.It’s a shame that this band had to split up after such a fantastic release. This album is highly recommended to fans of unnerved, dark and totally insane black metal. I cannot envision a black metal fan being majorly disappointed by this release.