Silentium “Sufferion – Hamartia of Prudence”

You may be certain that this is the most difficult review I ever wrote… Not because I don’t comprehend their music, dislike or don’t find it captivating enough to make me able to write some words about it! It’s simply because every note and word has touched me with such pain and sadness that everything I have felt since about five months ago until now always reach their peak while listening to “Sufferion.- Hamartia of Prudence”.
I bought it at around that time and this is my third attempt to write this review while listening to the music, simply because I didn’t felt “healthy” enough to do it. Today, I’m a bit better…
I’m not saying that I will give you exactly what I feel while listening to it but I intend to write a review decent enough to justify Silentium’s quality and my opinion of them having released the best Gothic/Doom – metal cd last year.
“Infinita Plango Vulnera” was my first acquaintance with this band… A gathering of woe and pain inebriated by shadows which I reviewed for the “tenderly hibernating” The Land of Sorrow Magazine back in 2001…
Time has passed, tears have been shed, joy has crossed our hearts and the memories of such sweet moments where innocence found its grace has brightened the path in which many dreams came to rest. Then, a few years ago, they released “Altum”, a brightly acclaimed Cd where one could find the same emotional chemistry that twisted our souls into a sad and bittered shame.
Finally, last year, they released what I consider to be their masterpiece, a conceptual flame shrouded by passion and despair within a tale worthy of entering Shakespeare’s realm of majestic riches. It consists of sixteen ( 16 ) tracks being eight of them such inducing distressful songs as the other eight falls in a very well played theatrical drama with convincing actors and sound effects.
It all starts with a letter in August 2nd, 1787… Written in tears, carried by passion, inflamed by love… It all starts with wishes and remembrances… A sad tale invoked by a lonesome cargo boat captain, Antracone, for his beloved Prudence born within the walls of rich nobility…
Maybe it’s the saddened ambience of Winter… Maybe it’s the painful dreams that those words invoked in me… Maybe it’s just the poetry of so many weary melodies carried within a fragile soul, a withered heart… But I cried…
The first song, “Flame still burns”, led me to the memories of such innocent times where I was truly happy… Yet, the nostalgic and desperate melodies mingled with such passionate words, as in the refrain “My Flame still burns/Hurting you, I'm bleeding too”, just pounded around my aching brain with such a tormented grief that sometimes I felt to weak to listen to it…
Other silvery moments of jewelled beauty that I adore are “Lost is my name” and “Heart unyielding”… nevertheless, the other songs are really captivating and tend to lead you into a painful, a highly melancholic horizon of praising sadness and woes for it grabs you by the soul and, after some listenings, you will find yourself humming to their melodies and singing their lyrics…
This is the Romeo and Juliet of all eras, of all lands, of all times… This is the crippled misery that surrounds even the most beautiful jewel… Scoria is a half demon, half human that plays his part in such tragic tale… A tale you can only know the end if you listen and read it…
Gathered by tearing keyboards parts, engulfed by desperate violin melodies, led by powerful guitars into a devastating landscape and sustained by mostly mid – paced drum rhythms, one discovers the drama that surrounds all those enloved. All nicely adorned by an enthralling female vocalist and clear male vocals, although one could listen to the occasional growls from time to time.
This pearl of enchanting beauty was recorded and mixed at Studio Sundi Coop, produced by Tuomas Holopainen and co-produced by Tuomo Valtonen & Silentium, being mastered at Finnvox by Mika Jussila. Sound design and programming; radio play directed, recorded and edited by Jani Laaksonen, their violin player.
If you don’t believe how great this fine example of Gothic/Doom is, just hear the Cd and discover what wanders through your soul, what the meaning of ART is!!!
The band describes their sound as “Theatrical – Metal”… It sure is…