Unsilence | ‘Under A Torn Sky’

With a 17 year history to look back upon, Bolton’s Unsilence are certainly no novices at this stage of the game. For all of the years they’ve put in, they have little of substance to show for their efforts, though. With only three demos and a couple of EPs to their name, ‘Under A Torn Sky’ marks the band’s full length debut; a remarkable return on a career that dates back to 1993.

Even more remarkable, however, is that after all that time, the debut album, when it finally comes, should sound like just another demo.

In fact, when one considers the improvements in demo recordings over the last ten years, often it sounds more like a rehearsal. To call the production basic would be overstating the case, and one can’t help but wonder whether the promo CDs feature an unmixed version of the album or whether this is actually the final product.

‘Under A Torn Sky’ is such a frustrating listen that it’s hard to be positive. It’s difficult to focus, for example, on some of the nice leads strewn throughout the eight tracks (such as towards the end of ‘The Burning Midnight’) or the nice initial build up to ‘Of What May Become’.

Some of the arrangements are reminiscent of the brilliant While Heaven Wept, and some nice meaty riffs call to mind some of the great English doom bands, like Solstice, Warning and other less well known acts such as Mourn and Ashen Mortality.

The album’s redeeming features – and there are some – are simply overwhelmed by the awful sound, and further buried by James Kilmurray’s penetrating, grating vocals (his doleful lamenting might not even be so bad, if it wasn’t as prominent in the (un)mix).

Quite what Unsilence and their label PsycheDOOMelic were thinking in releasing ‘Under A Torn Sky’ remains a mystery. Maybe after 17 years all involved decided it was time to release an album no matter what.

But, having persevered this long, surely it would have been wiser to wait that bit longer and finish the album before putting it out there, and just maybe make the most of the potential that is buried in the music.

1.7 / 5 - DBM ::: 11/03/10