Platitude were a small band that probably very few people are familiar with. They had an extremely short lived career in the early 00's, but like other bands with similarly brief trajectories such as Finland's three album wonder Machine Men, they left a lasting impression. Starting off with a shaky debut, Secrets Of Life was a fairly forgettable Power Metal album with slight neoclassical tendencies that would be squashed on subsequent releases. Sophomore effort, Nine, was a completely different beast. Progressive tendencies were emphasized with the instrumentation while the vocals were pushed to the front with very accessible melodies and insanely catchy choruses. Silence Speaks, their third and final album, fully realizes the ideas that presented themselves on Nine. This is a really odd album that is a gorgeous mix of catchy AOR, but leans well enough into progressive territory. The first two Circus Maximus albums would be the nearest comparison point, but this is still its own thing.

If you don't like keyboards you will not like this album. Keyboards are gloriously abundant on this album in terms of leadwork as well as providing complementary accompaniment to the guitars. Speaking of the guitars, they consist of very few riffs and instead are comprised of relatively complicated chord work. The "guitar solo" in opener Tell The Truth is just a very melodic chord smashing section that sets the tone for the rest of the album. When there is a need for lots of single note lines or a more traditional sounding solo, it's mainly the keyboards that are called upon to fulfill the role. This isn't to say that the guitars are in any way wimpy. Adding to yet another reason why this unheard gem us so lustrous, is that the guitars sound thick when needed. Empty Inside is the best example of this. It starts off with quick guitar strokes synced up with the drums before going into a brief bit of fast double bass riffing. Walk With Me has a more typical intro, replete with a high note, "YAAAAAAAHHH!," but it does have the most aggressive riffs on the album. Only closer You has any real length to it with its seven minute run time. For the most part it's a quick cruise to the chorus with interesting verses and bridges. Fear (It's Over Now) is the closest to a ballad that this album has, but any thoughts that this would be a clunker are quickly dispelled by the fast keyboard solo and the subtle ebb and flow of the drumwork. The percussion varies from simple bass thumps, to busy stick and cymbal work, to thumping out a chorus with intermittent double bass bursts.

With only ten tracks Silence Speaks is a relatively lean album and lends itself to repeated listens quite easily. Each member of the band plays to their strengths and this creates a sound that is unlike the vast majority of other bands. Maybe this was their downfall though. This is in no ways Power Metal type music, and it is way too melodic rock for Prog fans with its catchy choruses and average song length of about four minutes. I really feel like this is a band whose sound just kind of "happened" in the sense that the music was a formation of their collective influences. They might not have the best guitars in terms of technical solo ability. But they work around this issue and instead of shitting out a really awful sounding solo just to prove himself, he comes up with interesting ideas such as the "chord solo" in the aforementioned Tell The Truth. This really doesn't have the vibe of one guy writing everything. Hey, that could be another reason why Platitude was short lived. If it really was held together by all their weirdness then after a couple guys left the band just kinda crumbled. This is a great album that got lost to the annals of time. Dunno if it's on the 'fy (that's what the young crowd call Spotify right?), but you can get the mp3s pretty cheap on the 'Zon aka Amazon.