Cinder
Break Your Silence

THE REVIEW

Last year, while rummaging through the various mp3s I had, I stumbled upon Cinder, gave it a brief listen and then, impressed, I listened to the entire album more and more times (and I still do).
Many probably don't know these four American rockers; in Europe, they are quite unknown and honestly, I don't understand why, since there are worse bands that are praised as gods or geniuses of innovation. "Break Your Silence", the debut album from Cinder, was released in 2003 with production by a certain Scott Weiland. I admit it's not a masterpiece but it's still a good record, and I appreciate it for its simplicity; upon listening, you can clearly perceive the many Grunge and Nu Metal sounds present on the CD.

"Break Your Silence" opens in the best way with the aggressive "Soul Creation" (the first single released), powerful and adrenalitic, screams and distorted guitars take center stage, in my opinion the best; then we move on to "Crutch", a powerful song with relaxed verses, "Lush" starts semi-acoustic and then becomes more Rock in the chorus. The album features several semi-acoustic ballads, one of them is "Tomorrow", dark and beautiful, creating a nice atmosphere; "Ugly" breaks it with its destructive power, introducing us to the core of the album, the title track, "Break Your Silence", a normal slow Rock song, very beautiful and dreamy, perhaps the best on the album after "Soul Creation". Then another semi-acoustic ballad, "She Said" (almost in Staind's style) perhaps a bit too sweet for my taste, probably the least successful ballad.

"Consuela" (towards the end one might link it to the sounds of Il Nino) has a good aggressive start but doesn't explode as expected, a pity; "Whistin Pete" very Nu Metal oriented, with filtered Rap verses and an aggressive chorus (it reminds me of "Get Inside" by Stone Sour). Then comes "Please God" which immediately starts with a "head-moving" riff, but in the chorus tones it down a bit; and finally, we reach the last track, another ballad, "Daddy" perhaps the best semi-acoustic of the album: Roger Young is probably talking about his father whom he has never seen because he fled or died, I'm not quite sure (reading the lyrics, this seems to be more or less the meaning). The last minute of the song (and the album) is nothing but horror movie-type noises and incomprehensible words (oh well...).

I repeat, I really like this "Break Your Silence", it alternates aggressive moments with beautiful melodic atmospheres, even though a couple of angry Screams and some pissed off riffs wouldn't have hurt (except, of course, for "Soul Creation"); not essential, but highly recommended.