Silent Descent - Turn To Grey album review

Imagine a mélange of Soilwork and Clan Of Xymox filtered through Enter Shikari’s shape-shifting aggression and you’ll have a sense of Silent Descent’s sonic and stylistic aesthetic. In the last five years these Kent-based genre defiers have made several changes to their melodeath-infused electronica, sensibly stepping away from the awkward dubstep drops that jarred and dominated on 2012’s Mind Games. Turn To Grey gets the balance right between polished, gleaming guitars, grinding nu metal rumbles and pulsing, arpeggiated synth lines, incorporating more clean vocals than before from frontman Tom Watling. Vortex writhes its way towards darkened dancefloors, featuring vocals from Soilwork’s Bjorn ‘Speed’ Strid that slice through bludgeoning riffs and throbbing, dark electronica, while highlight Rob Rodda is a strobe-lit anthem that features trance pianos and electro-goth flashes. The result is heavy, euphoric and maxed-out on memorable melodies. Reach for the lasers indeed.