Silverstein

Dead Reflection (2017)

RENALDO69

Silverstein are another guilty pleasure of mine. I had a Victory Records sampler with "Giving Up" in high school when I got heavily into Thursday and Taking Back Sunday; and since then I've had a soft spot for them. Records like When Broken Is Easily Fixed and I Am Alive In Everything I Touch still get a couple spins on my side of town. Dead Reflection continues their evolution and finds the band at the more aggressive end of the spectrum, colder and weathered from years of tours, stories and emotions.

"Retrograde" is a great example of this, finessed along the lines of metalcore bands of Falling Like Reverse -- but way better. I admit that this is Silverstein for the Warped Tour kids of now and not those Hot Topic punks like myself back in the day who loved the soft-to-loud melodic/screamo/post-hardcore vibe of bands like them and The Used. That's not to say they don't acknowledge their hardcore roots ("Last Looks") or the Victory days where they ran riot with bands like Hawthorne Heights (take in "Aquamarine"). 

That said, Shane Told's lyrics cut deep as usual but his vocals have too many treatments applied to it here and come off over-produced. If you're looking for vintage Silverstein though, "Mirror Box" has you covered. It gets a bit too poppy later on with "Cut and Run" and "The Afterglow" but by that time you know what you got yourself into. A nostalgic trip that should be enjoyed for what it is -- a look back at the salad days.