Band:	Era Decay
Album:	Silent Stories
Style:	Melodic death metal, Doom metal
Release date:	2009
A review by:	Ernis

01. The Silent Story
02. Behind The Emptiness
03. Into My Own
04. Earth Answer
05. Runaway
06. Letum Orchestra
07. Flowers Of Evil
08. Rains Within My Soul

Not so long ago I wrote a review about the demo release of a new Romanian melodic death metal group Era Decay. This demo of theirs was a good surprise in several ways and bore good promises for the future. Now it's ready, their first full-length try called Silent Stories. I was rather interested at the beginning to see in what ways they were going to expand their musical ideas and what the impressions from the new album would be like.

Silent Stories is a light album in several ways. First of all, it doesn't span for a very long time although having eight tracks. Secondly, the overall style is dominantly melodic, smooth and slow. This is promising and I am sure this is pleasing for those who appreciate doom and melodic death. This is a fine release for people who value slower and melodic music. The band really gives a nice performance here. So what are the Silent Stories about this time? They are silent indeed, the whole atmosphere and feeling having a gloomy and misty shadow over it which is a fine effect used by the musicians. There is a strong feeling of the style of the early works of The Gathering in the air when listening to this piece of music. The most important pillars that keep the tent up are the keyboard melodies and guitar riffs which are well done and composed. The moderate death metal vocals suit the whole musical image fine as well.

A negative thing I cannot leave untold is the production which is a bit muffled. There are bands whose albums sound crystal clear and this album, unfortunately, isn't one of them. Maybe it does suit the atmosphere in a way but, then again, a good sound quality is always a very large plus. After all, there has been no band whose early releases bear supreme production.

The songs which represent the album's style and positive side in the best manner are "Into My Own", a rather aggressive and strong track which brings the catchiness into the album, "Earth Answer" as another good example of the aforementioned characteristics, "Letum Orchestra", and "Rains Within My Soul", a very beautiful song with a gothic essence in it similar to the atmosphere of Beseech and Flowing Tears. Once again I am very glad to admit how good it is to see new bands taking the old materials of great bands as an example and weaving these good elements into their own visions.
This album is a definitive cornerstone of their musical journey and I hope we may be expecting for more interesting material to appear in the future.