Silverstein

"When Broken Is Easily Fixed"

Victory

2004

With the birth of Thursday and Taking Back Sunday a new form of emo-core was born, so its natural that with their popularity, that the spawn of dozens of bands merely copying a pre-exsisting sound would begin to surface. Silverstein may at first appear to be one of the afforementioned, but they pack their own unique punch on their debut album "When Broken Is Easily Fixed". Not only does the album showcase the typical emo-core, but it also has an almost hardcore edge, with vocals that go from the most melodic to the most brutal yell possible. Silverstein, named after famous writer Shel Silverstein, may fall into an ever growing genre of music, but judging by the material present on this album and their non-stop touring, they just might have what it takes to stick around.

The album starts off on a heavy note with the track "Smashed into Pieces". The track begins rather typically with vocalist, Shane Told, opening the song with a high pitched scream leading into a melodic chorus. The track is altogether good, but a rather common emo-core song. The album then appears to slow down on the second track, "The Red Light Pledge", with a slow build up, where the riffs are heavy, but the other musicians remain mellow, giving the song a rather good feel with the occasional scream between choruses. The third track and the bands current single, "Giving Up", probably the albums second best track, starts off slow with more of an emo feel, which then leads into the somewhat punk chorus, which is melodiclly sung by vocalist Told. After each chorus screaming a verse and then leading right back into a melody. "November", the fourth track continues the album on with a slow emo-feel as the previous two tracks had done as well. This song though seems like a weeker version of the previous two, and seems to draw strong simularities to them as well, with melodic singing with a very occasional scream. "The Last Days of Summer" is strictly an all emo song, with very little if any heavy riffs or screaming, but altogether a good track, and much better than the one it preceeded. This track restores faith back into the album after the unimpressive "November", which made the album seem to be becoming repetitive. After several emo oriented tracks the album finally picks back up with its sixth track, "Bleeds No More" which starts off with vocalist, Told, screaming "My Heart Bleeds No More", directly leading into a much heavier emo-core styled track. The track is a pure delight with an occasional melodic verse, but the song mostly consisting of Told screaming verses. After restoring a heavy feel to the album, it once again is slowed down with the pop-punk styled "Hear Me Out". The fact that the song is more pop-punk than any track on the album isn't a bad thing, but it almost doesn't fit with the style of the rest of the album. The song is rather repetitive and is simply nothing new, but it does show that Silverstein have no problem jumping around to different genres in a very small way. "The Weak and the Wounded" is track that appears to be totally oriented in the direction of being an emo song, but once the song hits the once minute track, Told begins screaming verses and the music follows in his footsteps, immediatly becoming heavy. Its an excellent track and probably another of the album's best, with a great and unique emo-core feel. The nineth track, "Wish I Could Forget You", isn't at all a bad song, but its message is rather confusing. The song is called "Wish I Could Forget You", yet vocalist, Shane Told, melodiclly sings, "The secrets out that you're mine". Either way the song is good, but the corny chorus does become rather old and does kind of ruin the good feel the song has, compliments of the use of a viola. The album closes on a brillant note, with the title track, "When Broken Is Easily Fixed", which is not only the album's best song, but its heaviest as well. The fact that it is the album's heaviest song isn't what makes is good though, the song is well written and executed with perfection, putting the rest of the album to shame by how good it is. "When Broken is Easily Fixed" is an excellent way to close a typical, but good emo-core album.

If you're tired of the ever growing emo-core fad, this album is definately not for you. On the other hand, if you're simply looking for something good to listen to until the new Thursday album comes out, you'll enjoy Silverstein and their debut album. The band perform the ever popular genre well, and even pull it off with a style of their own. Sure, its been done before, but "When Broken is Easily Fixed" is much better than alot of the shitty emo-core bands that are simply 'jumping on the band wagon', and this album is definately worth a listen.

7/10

RIYL:
Thursday
Taking Back Sunday
Spitalfield
Finch

-Josh Tabbia

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