(written by Islander)
It’s fair to say that the forward-thinking European black metal band Silver Knife have underplayed their pedigree. They don’t seem to draw attention to the fact that the four-person lineup collectively includes members of some of the most formidable Belgian, French, and Dutch bands orbiting the sphere of black metal. Though Metal-Archives will tell you what’s on their resumes if you’re curious, they don’t trumpet those achievements, preferring to let their music do the talking.
That kind of confidence is merited, given the very impressive nature of Silver Knife‘s past releases — their debut album Unyielding/Unseeing in 2020, and their follow-on EP Ring in 2022. Their self-confidence is evident again in the epic nature of the six songs on their forthcoming second album, which is simply self-titled and is timed for release by Amor Fati Productions and Extraconscious Recordings to roughly coincide with the band’s second appearance at Roadburn Festival.
What we have for you today is a premiere stream of one of those songs (the second to be revealed from the album so far), a heart-bursting experience called “Restless Blight“.
In this song Silver Knife waste no time seizing the listener’s attention, quickly deploying vivid beats, ardently striving bass notes, and massed guitars that ring like a spinning carousel of chimes. The music is brilliant in tone and electrifying in effect, yet it also harbors moods of turbulent distress, maybe like walking along a wind-blown cliff edge between wonder and torment.
There’s certainly an overflow of turbulence and torment in the vocalist’s shattering screams which pierce through the striking shine of the guitars and the rhythm section’s vibrant hurtling. But the rhythm section know how to rock too, and when they do, the music flows in vast but still wondrous waves, panoramic in its expanse and yearning in its mood, carrying the listener along and far out into this brilliant musical sea.
Yet distressing moods return. The drums blast and the bass boils. The guitars madly swirl. The vocals shriek and cry out and seem to shred themselves into shards of flesh and a spray of blood. The wholly immersive nature of the music remains, but the richly layered melodies, lush and lavish, continue rushing along that emotional cliff edge, entwining moods of ecstasy and agony, of wistfulness and splendor (though even such eye-popping music can’t obscure the beautifully nuanced performances of the bassist and drummer).
Amor Fati Productions (Europe) and Extraconscious Recordings (U.S.) will release Silver Knife on CD, vinyl LP, and digital formats — on April 19th. Credit for the beautifully detailed cover art goes to KRAS. Find further info about the release via the links below, and then also lend your ears to the first single from the new album, “Reticent Paroxysm“.
AMOR FATI:
http://www.amor-fati-productions.de
https://amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/amorfatiprod
EXTRACONSCIOUS RECORDS:
https://entropicrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/silver-knife
https://www.facebook.com/extraconsciousrecords/
SILVER KNIFE:
https://www.facebook.com/silverknifeband
https://silverknife.bandcamp.com