Metal Underground.com

Malta: situated in the center of the Mediterranean sea, this small archipelago held great strategic importance for many ancient cultures, including the Greeks, Romansm and Arabs. Renowned as a gorgeous tourist destination, the small nation is best known for the Megalithic Temples, which are the oldest free standing structures on earth built in three distinct time periods from 5000BC and 700BC. Culturally rich, the now westernized musical tastes overshadow the traditional Maltese folk music called ghana. While Malta may not be a hotbed for metal, it presents a budding scene with acts from many subgenres, including the melodic metallers Rising Sunset, the epic doomsters Forsaken, the gothic metal act Stillborn, and the death doom of Weeping Silence. The “Sultans of Siggiewi” have been around since the mid-’90’s and in the fall of 2012 released third LP “For the Unsung” through Ravenheart. The band’s sound may not be earth shattering, lying somewhere in the murky waters between Epica and Draconian, but there is a tremendous upswing that foretells a bright future.

This review comes at an awkward time in the band’s history as the beauty and beast (and husband and wife) vocal team of Rachel and Joseph Grech have split with the band, having been replaced by Diane Camunzuli and Dario Pace Taliana. So, looking at “For the Unsung” with a sort of odd “posthumous” eye, with all the benefits of hindsight, I can honestly say that though Rachel has very admirable talent, I am really looking forward to the change with Camunzuli. On the other hand, her husband Joseph is a brilliant death metal voice, with a grim whispery style, and represents one of the highlights of the album. Sure, death metal singers are a dime a dozen, right? Well, if take out the incoherent growls of most bands, then you will see those choices become a little less replete.

Despite the split, the music core of Weeping Silence is the same and represents the solid foundation of a band that sees a bright future. Songs like “Fallen From Grace” and “Bitter Screams” are raptures of haunting gothic doom littered with hooks and hammering mid paced doom riffs with those fractions of silence (you know I’m a sucker for a well-placed pause). The winners of the release are the somber downtrodden beauty of “Mire of Pity,” which depletes jubilation from even the most positive individual, and the more up tempo and fetching, but no less devastating, “The Search Within.” Cap those off with the album’s best chorus in “Love Lies Bleeding,” while “My Possession” is by far Rachel’s best vocal performance on the album.

The production is excellent with a great mix and vocal levels. If I had one complaint it is the slight lack of variety in the style. At times some of the songs appear to merge together with a similar feel, which is a bit too close to what many other acts have done (oddly, most of them from Finland). As far death/doom standards go, this is played magnificently with soulful and emotion provoking solos (see Mario Ellul and Manuel Spiteri’s work in “My Possession”). It’s is just a bit hard to distinguish the sound from other bands, something I hope the switch in the vocal team will rectify. Other than that, Weeping Silence presents an effort worthy of praise, with tremendous upswing for the future.