The Silent Wedding - Enigma Eternal
FYB Records
Melodic Progressive Metal

Release year: 0
Reviewed by Joel
This is my second time with Greece's The Silent Wedding, and their brand of melodic progressive metal. Like my previous review of Livin Experiments, the band serves up a healthy platter of melodic metal, that can be symphonic and progressive all at the same time. The band delivers a lot of atmosphere and vibe many other bands just can't. Spacey keyboards when needed, powerful leads when asked for, and powerful vocals throughout. All while being technical and melodic, but not overindulgent for the sake, of showing how “Progressive” they can be.

Livin Experiment is the first song, and continues into the melodic riff fest of Shadows & Dust. Arpeggiated guitar riffs open it up, with layers of strings and piano thanks to keyboardist Johnny. The verses brings the unique vocals I mentioned last time, of Marios. His vocals have a tone unlike anyone, and he makes use of a natural vibrato unheard of, and to the unitiated may be difficult to appreciate. A great track that allows the disc to start off with a bang. The guitar solo mixed with verses arppegios and harmonics are used to great effect. Behind all of that is the various drumming of Renos, whose syncopated beats mixed with double bass parts, makes sure you hear him clearly. What Lies Beyond follows up, and features more of Johnny's piano playing to set the early mood, before the heavy riffs follow. Right off the bat the band is two for two in the memorable headbanging riffs category. Big open choruses are featured in this song, mixed with piano and guitar riffs(both clean and distorted) during the verses. Insanity continues a lot of the same vibe and tempo, where to some a bit of deja vu might be felt. If you listen deeper to the music, you'll see while the mood of the songs are similar, each song is unique in their own ways. The faster The Endless Journey increases the tempo of the earlier songs, while retaining all of the catchy melodic melodies and memorable riffs. A Dream Of Choices, has a special guest singer, in the form of Evergrey's Tom Englund, who is easily recognizable to most readers of this site. Check out the lyric video HERE. This is definitely one of the highlights of the whole disc. Check it out and enjoy!!

Loneliness is the slower song of the whole disc, but it is far from a throw-away song. Some of Marios's best vocals are on this song. Haunting, melancholic, and equally somber yet moving, are all adjectives that could be used to describe his vocals on this song. The sweeping score of strings from Johnny are equally moving as Marios vocals, but this is definitely his song to shine. That is till the showstopping guitar solo of Jim, that made me rewind and hear it a few times over and over again. Under the Veil of Grey will remind you of the first three songs on the disc, mixed with some of the spacey keyboards I mentioned(love that synth tone!), and that drumming that just has to be heard. Catharsis is a song, that has all the addicting riffs you expect. Though the meaning of that word normally has a negative feeling to it. When listening to them, it causes me to sit still, zone out into some spacey place, and just enjoy the onslaught of melodic metal that comes my way. Closer To The End, starts with a brief slow piano part, that continues to be heard over the stop and go guitar riffs, later being replaced by strings. Marios's vocals kind of remind here of Damian Wilson(ex-Threshold) here in the slower parts. The song definitely picks back up, and those guitar riffs come to the forefront, with the piano and drums hiding in the shadows yet easily heard. Silence again has those spacey keyboards, and a spooky spoken part that leads into one of the more straight ahead songs on the entire disc. While still melodic and typical of the band, this song has a more direct approach, with some great stop and go riffs with a lot of power behind them. Hands Of Fate is more or less an outro to match the discs opening track, and it definitely ends the disc on a final, whether it was necessary or not, is not really my final decision to make.

The Silent Wedding definitely have built upon their last release, with an album I hope reaches a new audience, because this is a band that deserves to be heard. Melodic, Powerful, Emotive, and any other adjective would work perfectly to describe what is here, to me this is examples of a band being progressive, without having to show off their dexterity, and writing memorable riffs and melodies that flow easily together. Easily recommended to fans of the genre, but also someone looking for something that may not have heard before.

Killing Songs :
all but the intro and outro tracks
Joel quoted 85 / 100
Other albums by The Silent Wedding that we have reviewed:
The Silent Wedding - Livin Experiments reviewed by Joel and quoted 84 / 100
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