Gallantly Streaming: Billy Talent Grow Up, Make One Hell Of Half An Album
Leading off the album with a ticking clock and sombre acoustic touches, Lonely Road to Absolution is a strange way to open a Billy Talent album; it's just an intro to the very typical Viking Death March, but it's somewhat refreshing to hear them stepping out of their comfort zone right away.
I've already spoken about Viking Death March and, while it has grown on me a bit, I still feel it's the kind of song Billy Talent can (and probably do) write in their sleep.
Much more rewarding is the riff-heavy, explosive single Surprise Surprise, a gleeful and smirking indictment of both the one percent and poseurs. Its subject matter may be a little played out and its structure may not be original, but its execution is damn near flawless.
Another curveball follows, as Runnin' Across the Tracks has a stringy AC/DC-lite riff crashing into a headbob-inducing verse and a patented Billy Talent Big Chorus. It's a restless track, veering madly through different moods and tempos; its four minutes and change contain enough ideas to fill the entire back half of Billy Talent III.
Love Was Still Around doesn't waste any time, nimble bass and vocals coming in right away. It plods along a little, but the chorus is a winner and the second verse switches it up a bit.
Stand Up and Run might be the album's first outright clunker if it were released on an earlier album; it carries a maturity and fearlessness in its melodic tendencies that makes the track endearing without making you roll your eyes (see Surrender). It's going to be a huge hit when it inevitably gets released as a single, and I won't be mad at my radio when it comes on.
Of course, some folks will be put off, so Billy Talent decided to follow it up with one of their tried and true rockers; Crooked Minds has all the hallmarks of what you'd expect from this band, but there's also a pinch of sinister in that riff that lends the song a slightly different flavour.
Dead Silence's second half is ushered in by Man Alive!, an uptempo headbanger that packs a smoking riff but not much else. It'll keep their fans happy and probably sound great in concert, but something about it seems unnecessarily silly.
As Hanging By a Thread starts, it's becoming apparent that Billy Talent are in a bit of a mid-album rut, and part of the riff and vocal line is dangerously close to that of The Navy Song. The Big Chorus is in full effect, but the song itself teeters on regurgitation; it sort of hangs by... oh, I see what they did there.
Cure for the Enemy brings in an elastic riff and more flashes of melody before exploding into another Big Chorus. It's not bad, but my mind is starting to wander and the greatness of the first half is becoming a more and more distant memory. Even as they reach for the heavens on the second chorus, it's starting to get a little tiresome.
Don't Count On the Wicked shows more promise; it's a well-constructed song with a nice riff that actually gets a little deflated by its Big Chorus. Nevertheless, we're hopefully amping it up for the album's closing trilogy of tracks.
Show Me The Way is a bit of a weird one, bouncing along happily on a riff that wants to be both The Cure and The Cult at the same time. I don't know if the approach works all the way through, but it at least breaks them out of a plodding, samey-sounding midsection.
When the piano kicks off Swallowed Up By the Ocean, I took it as a cue to set phasers to "epic". It's a slow burning track that has you waiting for the Big Chorus Explosion; it threatens to around the two-minute mark but flames out. When it does ramp up at three and a half minutes in, it's pleasant but doesn't seem epic enough. Perhaps I got spoiled by all those Big Chrouses. Regardless, it's a solid track.
I was sort of hoping there'd be a curveball in the title track, but Dead Silence closes the album with a typical Billy Talent track; in fact, both Fallen Leaves and Worker Bees come to mind while listening to it. It's not awful by any stretch, just a little disappointing.
After taking it all in, I have to say Dead Silence is sort of a letdown, but just sort of. Its most exciting, adventurous moments are front-loaded, making for an underwhelming latter half that's devoid of any truly amazing moments.
I have to give credit where it's due, though; Billy Talent have broken away from the teenage-centric subject matter that started to sound more than a little forced on Billy Talent III. Make no mistake, Dead Silence is way better (both musically and lyrically) than III. Even if they're not saying anything we haven't already heard, there's nothing embarrassing about it.
At the end of the day, Dead Silence is a very good, not great, album. Had they let the axe fall on a few of the B-side's weaker links and/or shuffled the sequencing a bit, it could have been a consistently engaging, thoroughly interesting record. As it stands, it's still listenable; its mixture is just off.
Dead Silence is out September 11 through Warner Music Canada.
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