A World Of Silence: Still

Flying the alt-rock (the band also suggest alt-prog…?) flag from their hometown of Florence in Italy, A World Of Silence are a band bringing together all the anticipated sounds from the alt scene and peppering them with a few less expected elements. Fronted by Benedetta Capecchi, and infused by the fiery guitar work of Matteo Benvenuti, the Still mini-album (around the 30 minute mark) relies on a selection of modern edged, but vintage inspired ideals to ably provide an ethos that should appeal to a broad cross section of rock fans.

Things kick off with "First Human Attack", a poppy guitar jangle building before breaking into a bouncy rumbustious beat. Capecchi is immediately thrust front and centre, a staccato delivery offset by some classy long held notes, proving from the off that this is a lady with serious rock credentials. The drums of Daniele Cianferoni lock everything in place neatly, as bassist Alessandro Sebastiani flits carefully between roaming melody infuser and bottom end place sitter. "Pollen" adds a bluesy drawl to the bag of tricks this band plunder, the vocals rich and full, the biting guitars refusing to even hint at retro-rehash.

However from there things go slightly awry, "NonSense" containing nerve shredding rap sections that do little more than suggest AWOS are looking for the sort of street cred their core audience will have no interest in, while "Something Permanent" doesn't fare much better. Here the danger is that things slip too far into a morose pool of nothingness that hopes to sound like Tool, or A Perfect Circle, but without any real threat at its centre; instead simply feels forced and subdued. "High Score" does ramp things back up, a sharp riff revealing the sort of raucousness this band have when the mood takes hold, while "Achille" manages to do the dark brooding thing this quartet obviously have their hopes set on, with more conviction.

Taken as a whole, Still is a little unsure as to what it actually wants to be, mainly because A World Of Silence haven't quite worked out exactly what suits their talents best yet. However when they focus on rocking out, rather than trying to chase a scene, or mimicking their heroes, the spoils can be well worth winning. They maybe don't hit their stride as often as you'd really like, but if expansive modern, alt-rock with a few bells and whistles added on sounds enticing, then A World Of Silence could be for you.

Track Listing
1. First Human Attack
2. Pollen
3. Still
4. NonSense
5. Something Permanent
6. High Score
7. Mare Mendacis
8. Achille

Added: February 7th 2016
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: A World Of Silence on BandCamp
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Language: english

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