Album Review: 156/Silence – Narrative (SharpTone Records)

Pittsburgh-based hardcore/metalcore band 156/Silence will release their new album, Narrative on September 2nd, 2022 via SharpTone Records. It is the follow-up to last year’s Don’t Hold Your Breath EP.

Speaking about the upcoming album, guitarist Jimmy Howell says:

Narrative to me is our most cohesive album to date and I’m extremely proud of what we’ve created. It was written almost directly after Irrational Pull during the pandemic during a time where we didn’t know what the future of this band would be. We just wanted to experiment and write something different than what we had done before.

The chaotic nature of the past few years runs through this album like a vein. Pumping the confusion, frustration and anger of the unsure world into 156/Silence’s sound. Something they then expel with force into listener’s minds. Narrative is, by far, the most experimental music the band has released but it might also be the most compelling.

The theme of ‘who knows what’s around the corner’ allows 156/Silence to really push their limits and it results in some genuinely brilliant songs. Discordant music that blurs the lines of both hardcore and metalcore. From the mind-blowing and bad-mannered A Past Embrace, to the unmanageable bedlam of The Rodents Race, to the ferocious heaviness and melodramatic melodies of Another Loss. The first handful of tracks will have most completely sold on this new album.

With dangerous sounding intensity, For All to Blame is one for the pit. Whereas I Am a Fault has 156/Silence take a breather and deliver a short slice of emotive and powerful melody. Before To Take Your Place combines ‘in your face’ hardcore heaviness with dreamy ambience that effects the vocals. Followed by the no-nonsense stomp and groove of If Pleasure’s Gone. Don’t doubt 156/Silence’s ability to go as hard as possible, ever.

Their imagination is brimming over and even when something seems like it’s going to be fairly simple, the group shift the tone in interesting ways. Stay Away is a great example of this, one of the more atmospheric tracks on the album. Although Tell the Reason takes first place for its intense infusion of sci-fi effects and crushing bursts of heaviness.

The final pairing of Say the Phrase and Live to See A Darker Day can be called the cherry on top. As the former has 156//Silence dig very deep to pull out and display a ton of heart, soul and passion. A little strange at times, the echoing melodic drops are disconcerting, but addictive listening. Whereas the latter is nearly nine-minutes of savage heaviness, cold melody, dark drops and bright lifts. Where the length of the track becomes irrelevant because it is so engrossing. It drifts into a soft piano melody and then silence in the last two minutes, however hold fire, get to the last few seconds and you might have a better understanding of the album’s narrative.

While everyone, least of all 156/Silence, would like to never have to experience the events that inspired the creation of this album, we can at least take its existence as a positive. 156/Silence have not just challenged themselves with Narrative, they’re challenging their audience.

156/Silence – Narrative Full Track Listing:

1. A Past Embrace
2. The Rodents Race
3. Another Loss
4. For All to Blame
5. I Am a Fault
6. To Take Your Place
7. If Pleasure’s Gone
8. Stay Away
9. Tell the Reason
10. Say the Phrase
11. Live to See A Darker Day

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