SYMPHONITY – Voice From The Silence

Czech Republic isn’t actually known for its Heavy Metal. After all, how many Czech bands can you name? Symphonity is, as you might already have guessed, a Symphonic Power Metal band from the Czech Republic. While this is their debut release, the band’s roots go back to 1994. The band was known as Nemesis until 2005, and they released one album, Goddess Of Revenge, in 2003. After a few changes in the line-up they decided to change their name into Symphonity and added a well-known vocalist to their ranks; namely Olaf Hayer (Dionysus, Luca Turilli, Aina etc.)

Voice From The Silence is a release that lacks the big surprises, and you get exactly what you paid for with this one. If you’re a fan of bands like Edguy, Stratovarius and Gamma Ray then this release may interest you. This album has, like most albums mixed by Sascha Paeth, a crystal clear soundscape. The instruments are separated a lot in the mix and you have no problem hearing what all the instruments play at all times. It sounds really polished like a good Power Metal release is supposed to. Too bad the bass sounds more jingling than Steve Harris’ (Iron Maiden) bass at times.

The first few songs have nothing really exciting to offer. Sure they are good Power Metal songs with symphonic elements here and there, but as they are extremely straight forward you get the feeling you’ve heard all this before, and done a lot better too. Songs like “Gates Of Fantasy” however is, although it often rides the same pattern as most of the other songs, filled with cool technical instrumental parts where both the guitar and the keyboard play simultaneously. It’s even got an ethnic instrumental part in the middle that breaks up the structure of the song a bit, and it adds the little extra to the song. This song sees some great vocal performances by Hayer, but he never reaches the point where he amazes you, like he did with the first Luca Turilli release, King Of The Nordic Twilight. It seems he goes with what’s safe and that’s a shame since fans know he can do so much more.

“The Silence” trilogy is nothing short of a great epic Symphonic masterpiece, but it could just as well have been one track instead of three. Part one, “Memories,” is a piano/synth intro to part two, “In Silence Forsaken.” A cool little element they’ve added to the intro is a rainmaker, which makes the sound of running water. “In Silence Forsaken” has some great technical instrumental parts that leave no doubt about the skills of the band members. This song also includes some great vocal choir parts, courtesy of Hayer, and it’s also got great string orchestration to fill up the soundscape. The ending of the song isn’t all that great. It fades out at the same time as the piano/synth from the intro enters again, and suddenly onto part three, “Relief Reverie,” which basically is an outro for the trilogy. On top of the piano/synth there’s a guy speaking a few cheesy lines in lousy “germanglish.” For those looking for references it can be said that he sounds extremely similar to the guy speaking on the beginning of “Treasure Island” by Running Wild.

This isn’t the most innovative or greatest album to be released in 2008. It’s not all that bad and there are a few good songs on this release, but overall the band doesn’t take any risks with this release. We’ve also seen Olaf Hayer perform better than this, and there are a bunch of other bands within this genre that does this so much better.

Symphonity is

Olaf Hayer – Lead vocals
Libor Křivák – Guitars
Ivo Hofmann – Keyboards
Tomáš Čelechovský – Bass
Martin Škaroupka – Drums

Tracklist

1. La Morale Dell’ Immorale (instrumental) (1:06)
2. Give Me Your Helping Hand (5:09)
3. Gates Of Fantasy (6:35)
4. Bring Us The Light (5:06)
5. Salvation Dance (5:01)
6. The Silence – Memories (Part I) (2:01)
7. The Silence – In Silence Forsaken (part II) (6:40)
8. The Silence – Relief Reverie (part III) (1:31)
9. Searching You (5:20)
10. Evening Star (8:41)
11. Afterlife + hidden track (6:01)