Band:	Silver Lake (ITA)
Album:	Silver Lake
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	January 14, 2011
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Help Me To Fight The Rain
02. Before The Storm
03. Break
04. Life
05. Slave To The Grind [Skid Row cover]
06. Meet You Again
07. Holy Affinity
08. Silver Lake

It's hard to say which is worse - a crappy band with a crappy vocalist, or a good band with a crappy vocalist. See, a crappy band with a crappy vocalist is a matter of a simple write-off, no love lost. However, when you come across a band like Silver Lake, it's a little bit heartbreaking when the music is quite moving and powerful, but the whole thing just comes across as fluffy because of the vocalist.

Ok, so the singing entity known as Davide Bertozzi is actually quite a capable vocalist, however, his particular vocals aren't doing the band justice. He sounds fairly...well, un-powerful, fluffy and pretty weak. The music on the other hand is fantastic. Yes, it's prog, and yes, there are quite a number of extended instrumental segments. Usually the phrase "extended instrumental segment" means "listen to these blow-hards with too much talent for their own good perform the musical equivalent of jerking off in the mirror." Silver Lake on the other hand seem to be making music for both musicians and spectators; it's technical enough to be impressive on a performance level, while still being full of deep melodies which will appeal to those of us out there who don't give a fuck what the word "arpeggio" means. It's a bit power-metal like in the sense of intricate guitar/keyboard harmonies, but closer to hard-rock in the sense that it avoids any over-extended attempt at pulling off so many of those "epic" cliches, not to mention delivering the aforementioned harmonies is in a digestible, straight-forward manner.

I don't say this often, but this is one band that could easily pull off an entirely instrumental album. Yet they choose not to. This guys vocals are fitting, yet the whole time you keep picturing the vocals being done by someone who pushes the whole thing to a more heavy hitting level, instead of watering it down. Well, you can't have it all, I suppose. Luckily the music shows enough depth to make this a pretty rewarding listen if you're into progressive heavy metal with an emphasis on melody.