Album Review | Weeping Silence – Isles Of Lore

Weeping Silence
Isles Of Lore
Label: ViciSolum Productions
Out: 24. November 2023
Playing Time : 48:40

It should have been a really big show, the performance for the twentieth band anniversary of Weeping Silence at the Metal Over Malta Festival 2018. But a few weeks before, four members left the band. The tears flowed profusely. And the future fate of the band from Malta was completely up in the air. But co-founder and guitarist Mario Ellul, in particular, was not thinking of quitting. It was quiet for most of the time, but work was going on behind the scenes. Eight years after “Opus IV Oblivion”, the successor “Isles Of Lore” is finally released.

Already with “The Watcher On The Walls” you notice as an old Weeping Silence fan that the band sounds different. Not only musically, but also vocally. Frequent double bass attacks are characteristic. Sure, you can hear the bitterly evil growls of singer Dario Pace Taliana. But one misses the ethereal female vocals. In this song, the gap is filled by Kobi Farhi (Orphaned Land). Only the gloomy basic mood has remained. In “Serpentine” you first hear a fast guitar introduction. Later on, the song also moves at a higher speed level. At the beginning you hear clear male vocals. Since I don’t have any information about this, I assume it’s Dario. If this is true, he does a good job. But his strength are the growls. Also “The Collector” is played faster, at the beginning Alison Ellul contributes some spherical keyboard sounds. “The Beast And The Harrow” is an overlong epic. With a slightly progressive orientation. In the middle there are some sound gimmicks. The short melodic instrumental intermediate play “Interlude” forms the bridge to “Engulfer”. Here a water monster is sung about those lives in a deep dark well. The sound is correspondingly dramatic. “Where Giants Roamed” starts with keyboard carpets and plucked guitars. This song is very ballad-like. Nevertheless, the lower guitar tones dominate here as well. “A Silent Curse” lets the tempo pick up again. At the very end there is another overlong song (more than 16 minutes). “The Legend Of Matteo Falzon” starts very melodic and calm. But in the manner of an accelerated run, the entire rhythm section comes in later and provides a lot of power. Once again, the new progressive orientation of the Maltese is clearly evident.

It’s nice to hear something from Weeping Silence again after so many years. After the “final concert” at Metal Over Malta, it was not clear if and how the band would continue. And “Isles Of Lore” is a good album. An impressive comeback. But I have to admit that I liked the previous album from 2015 much better. Instead of Draconian or Tristania, Weeping Silence now orientate themselves more towards Amorphis. Certainly not a bad choice. Unfortunately, there is now a huge gap in Female Fronted Doom, because you hardly hear anything from these bands anymore.

Lineup:

Dario Pace Taliana – Vocals
Mario Ellul – Guitar
Glenn Paul Pace – Guitar
Manuel Spiteri – Bass
Alison Ellul – Keyboards
Julian Mallia – Drums

Track list:

• The Watcher On The Walls
• Serpentine
• The Collector
• The Beast And The Harrow
• Interlude
• Engulfer
• Where Giants Roamed
• A Silent Curse
• The Legend Of Matteo Falzon