The Silent Era’s latest album expands on the sonic grandiosity of its 5 released singles. Combining musical cues from punk, metal, post rock, shoegaze, and industrial music, Wide And Deep And Cold is an often provocative album that’s beautifully polished and sonically distinctive.
The London-based rock outfit has been leaving a rather positive impact on us at Rock Era, with each song we listen to being uniformly unique and confident in its musicality and panache. Fronted by the extremely talented Bri Macanas, The Silent Era create songs that are bombastic but dark, extravagantly brooding, and filled with a sense of danger that give the songs a really effortless gravity. The pounding grooves and hypnotizing riffs on ‘On The Run’ and ‘Vendetta’ open the album with ample representation of what The Silent Era do best. Heavy handed beats, industrial, dystopian atmospheres, and hypnotizing songwriting.
‘Vendetta’ showcases capable musicianship through its rock-hard groove and thick, fuzzed-out guitar riffs. An infectious piece of alt rock that takes its time, climbing steadily to its explosive later third that lets go of all pre-conceived rhythms and riffs for something totally spectacular. ‘Matter of Time’ is massive. A glorious, slow-tempo cacophony of post rock environs and Macanas’s addictive wails, this 6-minute symphony takes its good time building the encroaching atmospheres that eventually swallow all the light, leaving a delicious sense of brooding gloom that we just couldn’t get enough of. From the slow-burning chaos of ‘Matter of Time’ to the syncopated, horror blues of ‘Strange to Me’. ‘Strange to Me’ features a harrowing melody and some electronic wizardry that make it a standout piece amongst its album peers until this point.

‘Peur’, an interlude, is drop dead gorgeous, terrifying, and challenging. Running less than a minute and half, this eerie moment of respite is a perfect moment of calm before the album’s second half ensues. ‘Dead of Night’ features one of album’s darker chord sequences, alongside one of the album’s most distinctive beats. A fantastic mix of old school and novel, ‘Dead of Night’ carries a dynamic momentum through its beat and vocal delivery that makes it one of the album’s most engaging and enjoyable offerings. The gargantuan bass and open-ended composition of ‘Paradise Beach’ make it one more stunner on the album’s second half. Cavernous and loaded with a sense of darkness, ‘Paradise Beach’ is a piece of music that is deep, multifaceted, beautifully written and executed.
‘Cliffs’ is groovy, featuring a chic and impactful bass line courtesy of Nicolas Zappa. Macanas’s reverb-drenched vocals are as characterful as ever, and Jo Eiffes’s steady-handed beats are driving and energizing. The album’s penultimate track is the previously featured ‘Oscillations’, still maintaining its spot as one of the album’s most immediate and enjoyable offerings. The chorused bass is cooked a-la Joy Division’, offering a moment of distinct change on the album, alongside the truly arresting chorus and Macanas’s soaring vocals, all making for a wonderfully immersive musical journey. ‘Raining Again’ is a gorgeous and moody finish to a rather distinctive album. The album’s deep blue and black color palette is explored to its fullest on this synth-led and ominous piece of ambient music.
Exploring a plethora of moods and navigating through its concept of the ocean and its vast openness and depth, The Silent Era’s Wide And Deep And Cold is a beautifully orchestrated collection of songs that showcase a band with immense range of talent. For songwriting and for atmosphere building, The Silent Era’s quartet is capable of painting gorgeously harrowing sonic landscapes using thick and lush guitars, a rhythm section that is capable of terrific restraint, leaving a ton of space for an extremely expressive frontwoman, all delivering songs that drip with sonic maturity. An engaging fears for the senses.