Band:	Silentium
Album:	Sufferion - Hamartia Of Prudence
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	July 2003

01. The Letter
02. Flame Still Burns
03. Antracone's Dream
04. Lost Is My Name
05. The Wraith At The Shore
06. Heart Unyielding
07. The Conspiracy
08. Shame Forever Mine
09. Scoria Arrives
10. Dark Whispers
11. The Murderer
12. Whiter In Silence
13. The Hideaway
14. The Fall
15. At The Cabin
16. Beyond

Silentium is a Gothic Metal band from Finland, and for those of you totally unfamiliar with their work, this is their third release, [Infinita Plango Vulnera in 1999 and Altum in 2001]. The best to describe the music of Silentium is Gothic Metal with some Doom influences, with clear male vocals, an enchanting female voice, and the occasional Death Metal growl.

I'll bet that many of you are already comparing this band with many, many Gothic Metal bands that have those exact elements, but wait! Don't categorize Silentium so soon! Silentium has a particularity that I believe is going to make this band stand off from the crowded scene of Gothic Metal.

Silentium describes their music as "Theatrical Metal", when I read this I remember I thought, "Why every band that comes around thinks their style is so unique that they have to invent their own Metal genre just to describe theirselves?", but I was so wrong my friends, because, Theatrical Metal is the best way to describe Silentium music.

This album is a play, a tragic history that take place in 1787, and tells the history of a love doomed to fail, the history of the half-breed Spaniard Antracon and his beloved Prudence, a member of the nobility. While both are apart because Antracon is in a voyage overseas, the evil wraith Scoria will try to separate the lovers, will he succeed? Will love prevail over evil? My friends, the only way to know this is listening [and reading] the album.

I consider this album to be somewhat a "Metal Musical" like a Broadway Heavy Metal play. As you can see, the album contains 16 tracks, but only 8 are songs, the other ones are spoken passages, and dialogues, that allow to support the whole story, I must say that the cast is perfect and every character is very well acted, just listen to Scoria!

The musical parts are very well done, very nice Gothic Metal, the alternating voices [male/female] are both great, the album contains mostly mid-paced songs, the whole vibe of the album is very melancholic I must say.

The one thing about this one I that the whole story seems to surpass the important part, the music, in several occasions, I skipped songs just to listen the dialogues and story parts [believe me, the story is great!], beside from that this is a must-have for all Gothic fans, you just can's deny the talent after hearing songs like 'Flame Still Burns' , 'Wither In Silence' and 'The Fall'.

So if you want to experience a real Theatrical experience, get this right now, not only you get a fascinating story but also a great piece of musical work.