Violent Silence - A Broken Truce (2013)

Artista: Violent Silence

Álbum: A Broken Truce
Año: 2013
Género: Crossover Prog
Duración: 47:13
Nacionalidad: Suecia

Lista de Temas:
1. Prism Path
2. Rim Of Clouds
3. The Kingdom Below
4. A Broken Truce

Alineación:
- Martin Ahlquist / Vocals
- Johan Hedman / Drums, Keyboards
- Anders Lindskog / Bass
- Hannes Ljunghall / Keyboards
- Bj?rn West?n / Keyboards

Ayer les prometí el último trabajo de esta banda sueca... un trabajo más melódico y menos extremo en relación al estilo imperante, pero que utiliza tres teclados en vez de dos, ya que el baterista, además de ser un grande en eso de tocar la batería, también se la agarró con los teclados para que ninguna guitarra necesita aparecer por estos pagos. Con un cambio de vocalista que le va muchísimo mejor, y luego de 8 años aparecen nuevamente estos suecos que se hicieron, y se están haciendo, bien de abajo.
Pero ya ayer hablé mucho de ellos, aquí les copio el comentario principal de este disco, mientras se disponen a degustarlo como se merece, porque el disco está muy bueno:

Tercer trabajo del grupo de Uppsala, que cuenta con tres teclistas en su haber y que no necesita de la guitarra, instrumento que no se echa en falta por la concepción de la música de los suecos. No esperéis nada parecido a ELP o algún otro grupo con prominencia de teclados. Más bien no se pueden, ni en este caso se deben, buscar referencias en la música de este maravilloso grupo, porque la épica de sus composiciones no busca la comparación con nadie. Posiblemente, estemos ante una de las mejores agrupaciones progresivas de toda la historia del género en el país escandinavo.
Tampoco vamos a encontrar extensos espacios ambientales ni colchones generados por los teclados, puesto que nos vamos a encontrar un ejercicio dinámico de ellos como absolutos protagonistas de toda la música generada por este grupo, que recupera todo el espíritu que se echaba de menos en cuanto a exposición musical. Y es que nos encontramos con arreglos poderosos que no desdeñan la posibilidad, en ningún momento, de asombrarnos con elementos del jazz, del Canterbury, de la electrónica más progresiva... en definitiva, de una música hecha por y para la mente.
A todo esto hay que añadir dos elementos clave en la resolución musical de la banda. Por un lado, una poderosa, profesional y sentida sección rítmica capaz de navegar por los intrincados modelos progresivos que abundan en la música de este nuevo trabajo, dándole corazón y alma a unas composiciones, ya de por sí monumentales, emocionantes y fascinantes. Y por otro lado, no hay que dejar de citar a su cantante, un guía espiritual y efectivo que sirve de hilo conductor de toda la trama musical del combo sueco.
No sabría definir con absoluta certeza a este grupo, pero de lo que estoy bien seguro es que estamos ante unos creadores subyugantes que magnetizan desde el primer momento de su escucha y ejercen un poderoso embrujo seductor y adictivo sobre el oyente. Dos características que pocos grupos saben hacer confluir en no sólo una grabación, sino en toda una producción a lo largo de los años, de la que recomiendo también vehementemente sus dos anteriores grabaciones.
Temas extensos, de espectros musicales variados, arreglos inmensos y de carácter intrincado, melodía, sensibilidad y eficacia son características inherentes que definen las intenciones de un grupo que derrocha imaginación a raudales y que no padece síntomas de autocomplacencia, puesto que no trata de demostrar, pese a su técnica y más que evidentes posibilidades, que son los mejores instrumentistas, sino que son los creadores de un mundo musical de amplísimas facultades. Como músicos un diez... como artistas se salen de cualquier baremo. Creadores de un sabor añejo y con una personalidad apasionante, Violent Silence son el talento, la voluntad, la consistencia y la imaginación que, desde hace mucho, mucho tiempo parecia estar olvidado y desdeñado.

José Luis Martínez Arilla

Solamente cuatro temas, todos largos, para un disco hipnótico...

Y vamos con los comentarios en inglés, que si los leen, van a ver que los críticos aún no se ponen de acuerdo, después de 8 largos años, si lo que hace la banda está buenísimo o es mediocre...

"Those keys! Oh, those keys!" That is what I say every time I listen to this album. Violent Silence is a band from Sweden with a penchant for unique and proggy music. "A Broken Truce" is their third album, and it actually took about eight years to get it made. That is understandable as the members have been busy in other endeavors. Both Bjorn Westen and Hannes Ljunghall, the primary keyboardists, had been busy with another group called Hidden Lands (if you get a chance to hear them, be sure you do!). So, the band is back together again, and they have come out swinging.
"A Broken Truce" is made up of only four tracks, all of them over ten minutes in length. These "epics", if you will, are lush, full, and never pointless. Indeed, there is no filler here at all. The band's promo sheet says that their music is "detailed", and for once I agree with a promo sheet. This music is layered, meaningful, and always moving, There are so many fragile subtleties that require keen attention in order to appreciate this album fully. Yes, I think headphones are required.
The band has a sound that few share. Active, cymbal-laden drumming meets with deep bass and amazing keys. There are no guitars here as far as I can tell. And you know what? They don't need any. The dual keyboardists sound amazing together, especially since they have such unique synth settings. They sound somewhat spacey, but lush and organic, too. It's a special sound that I just love, and "A Broken Truce" hands down contains some of the best keyboard work of 2013.
The vocalist has an interesting voice that never seems to sound the same. It is somewhat high-pitched, but he manages his voice expertly. He phrases his lines in strangely beautiful fashions, especially on my favorite track "Rim of Clouds". His voice is playful, yet focused; humble, yet confident. It's a voice that grows on you more and more with each listen.
Violent Silence's long-awaited album is no disappointment. It meshes amazing elements with mature ideas and performances to craft one of the most interesting albums of the year. Any serious prog fan should give this a listen.

Jason Spencer

Listening to Violent Silence's new album A Broken Truce is like a trip down the memory lane of the early Phil Collins Era of Genesis...without Phil. It is like hearing those wonderful keyboards from Trick of the Tail, Duke, and Wind and Wuthering, set to different melodies. Hannes Ljunghall and Björn Westén's keyboards and piano will take you back to the glory days of Tony Banks from the opener "Prism Path" through to the title track, "A Broken Truce".
Each track is over 10 minutes long, so do not feel cheated that there are only four tracks. Every minute of the tracks are full of excellent melody and dynamic keys.
Martin Ahlquist's vocals take some time to appreciate, and he is definitely not like Phil Collins. But he has a good voice which does not detract from the expert musicianship surrounding him. The stories are deep and the lyrics interesting. Johan Hedman's drums, and Anders Lindskog's bass are fantastic complements to the music; but this is a keyboards – based band…make no mistake about it. And I love the keyboards. So it is easy for me to highly recommend this Uppsala, Sweden band's third full length album. Violent Silence has previously released Kinetic, in 2005, and their debut, Violent Silence, in 2003.
So if you miss those classic keyboards from the 70s, plug in A Broken Truce and listen to the memories come flowing back...set to new melodies.
"Excellent keys…I can hear them now. Yes this is the picture".

Mark Johnson

Violent Silence was a bit of a surprise, one of those bands that takes me a couple of listens to get into, not because of music that is not accessible (their tunes are very approachable), but for some reason I didn't appreciate it as much the first time. Once I got into it though, I found Violent Silence to be a group with a familiar yet interesting compositional direction that emphasizes the use of simple themes and melodies and moves the tracks along with clear and powerful vocals. Being an album of just four songs, I couldn't help but love the format of lengthy pieces that really let the ideas breathe and develop on their own without being in a rush to squeeze in a formulaic number of verses and choruses. The opener, "Prism Path" is a great example of this, particularly as you start to reach the last few minutes of the piece where the band makes use of subtle repetition, growing dynamics, striking vocals, and the reintroduction of an earlier theme to round off the song. Fans of neo-prog or 90′s revival ala' Morse or TFK should dig this.

Matt Di Giordano

The worlds single most underrated band at the moment. After a few quiet years and some line-up changes, the Swedes in Violent Silence forcefully bounce back with this their third album without skipping a beat. Their sound is as original as it gets in prog nowadays, and although the style is a bit odd on first hearing it's still quite approachable because of the quality of the music. Interesting instrumental interplay and incredibly catchy melodies abound. And by the way, the new singer absolutely rips. Probably the best album of 2013. Stunning stuff.

necam

Violent Silence is a Swedish prog band from Uppsala, our fourth city. They have been releasing three record since 2003. Now ten years after they have released their third record "A broken truce" which is a quite rich record with a lot of symphonic tunes.
What's special with Violent Silence is that they don't use guitar. Insted they have a lot of keyboards in different varieties. On this record they show some fantastic ingredients to occupy your mind with. The keyboardists of this record explore the world of melodies and do it very well. I prefer the instrumental parts of it, even if the singer is worth praising for his inputs. The singer though perhaps should be more varied and I had wanted some more variation even from the melodies. I don't miss guitar, the keyboards do a perfect job.
I rate the songs: 7,6,7,6 and the best one is according to me the first one "Prism Path" but I also recommend "The Kingdom Below" which is wonderful in its own way. On "Prism Path" I think the singer sounds almost like Moon Safari and the music feels honest and free. They surely have their own style. "The Kingdom Below" contains an interesting part with drums and keyboards playing like shocks of power.
The keyboardists Johan Hedman, Hannes Ljunghall and Björn Westin, the drummer Johan Hedman, the bassist Anders Lindskog and the vocalist Martin Ahlquist shall deserve credit and the final review will be: "A good record". Three stars!

Drömmaren Adrian

Very much standard progressive rock, with some symphonic elements to it. Very solidly and tightly played, and the vocalist does have a really suitable voice. Yet this album does not offer anything new as such within the genre. It also quite much feels like the musicians would have much more potential, but have just decided to play with solid and safe cards instead of putting some experimental thinking into it.

oh6gdx

This is the third album by Swedish Progressive Rock group Violent Silence, formed and led by drummer / keyboardist / songwriter Johan Hedman, with vocalist Martin Ahiquist, keyboardists Hannes Ljunghall and Bjorn Westen and bassist Anders Lindskog. The album comprises of just four epic tracks, all lasting over ten minutes, three of which were co-composed by Hedman, Ljunghall and Westen and one by Hedman and Ljunghall, with all lyrics written by Hedman.
Stylistically the music is "frozen in time" in the early 1970s Symphonic Prog, with immediate reminiscences of early Yes and their contemporaries. The melodic suites are well structured and interestingly developed, but introduce no innovation to the music that was first defined forty years earlier, for good and for bad. The high-pitched vocals are clean and in tune, but in the long range can be somewhat unnerving. There is a bit of Celtic and perhaps also Scandinavian Folk influence, which makes this music better than most similar efforts.
The instrumental work is spotless, obviously dominated by the keyboards, which play many interesting riffs and fine solos. The rhythm section is doing a perfect job, keeping the music streaming forward and the background elegantly rich, with some superb bass passages.
Overall this is a very good Symphonic Prog album, which should delight the die-hard fans of the genre, who simply want more of the same. People who moved on to greener pastures will find this a bit archaic, but nobody can deny the obvious class these guys represent.

Adam Baruch

This much too underrated and remarkably consistent band has released yet another gem. Absolutely adorable.

aerial

Third recording from the Uppsala group, which has three keyboardists to his credit and has no need of the guitar, an instrument that is not missing the conception of the music of the Swedes. Do not expect anything like ELP or some other group with prominence of keyboards. We cannot, or in this case we mustn't look for references in the music of this wonderful group, because the epic of his compositions doesn't seek anyone else. Possibly, we are facing one of the best progressive groups throughout the history of the genre in the Scandinavian country. Nor will we find extensive environmental spaces generated by the keyboards, as we will find a dynamic exercise of a bunch of musisicians as absolute protagonists of all music produced by this group In my opinion, they retrieve all the spirit that was missing in terms of musical exposure. And it is that we find powerful arrangements that do not disdain the possibility, at any time, to amaze the listener with elements of jazz, Canterbury, most progressive electronic music ... in short, a music made by and for the mind. To all this it must be added two key elements in the band's musical resolution. On the one hand, a powerful, professional and heartfelt rhythm section able to navigate the intricate progressive models that abound in the music of this new work, giving heart and soul to compositions, already monumental, exciting and fascinating. On the other, we must not fail to mention their singer, a spiritual guide and an effective common thread that serves the entire musical fabric of this Swedish combo. I couldn't certainty define this group, but what I'm pretty sure is that we have some true captivating creators magnetizing us from the first moment when listening this new production and they put a powerful seductive and addictive spell on the listener: two features that few groups can just come together and not only in this recording, but in a whole production over the years. In fact, I also strongly recommend their previous two recordings. Extensive songs, a varied musical spectrum, immense arrangements with an intricate character, melody, sensitivity and efficiency are inherent characteristics that define the intentions of an act that exudes imagination in abundance and show no symptoms of complacency, since they don't try to demonstrate, despite its technical and too obvious possibilities, that they are the best musicians, but the creators of a musical broad powers world. As musicians ten ... as artists they exceed any scale. Creators of a vintage flavor and fascinating personality, Violent Silence are the talent, the will, the consistency and imagination that, for a long, long time seemed to be forgotten and neglected.

Jose

The Swedish act Violent Silence was formed back in 1999 in Uppsala. Their eponymous debut was released in 2003 followed by Kinetic two years later. On both albums you could hear strong progressive rock music which was very much dominated by keyboards. It seemed that no guitars were allowed to intrude into their music. Although their compositions featured many keyboards, you couldn't say that they made music related to acts such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Rick Wakeman, Gerard, Trace or The Nice. The way they touched the black and white keys was very different compared to those acts. This time the keyboards were played as if they were percussion instruments. Also the sound of the synthesizers was very much related to instruments such as glockenspiel, xylophone or marimba. However after both albums were released, a third album was never actually made...until now.
Already in the review of the spin-off band Hidden Lands and their debut album In Our Nature (2012, see review) I mentioned that a possible third Violent Silence was to be expected very soon. Well this was very much true because A Broken Truce can now be welcomed after an absence of eight years. During those eight years, a lot has probably happened because the line-up that recorded A Broken Truce differs from their earlier released albums. The only person from Violent Silence who hadn't played on Hidden Lands first effort was drummer Johan Hedman. Well he is now together with new vocalist Martin Ahlquist one of the two key members and can be heard on the drums and keyboards. Strangely enough, a couple of people who worked on the two older albums can be heard as well on the third Violent Silence album, namely the two keyboard players Björn Westén and Hannes Ljunghall. Furthermore, Anders Lindskog plays the bass parts and Andreas Hellkvist plays an extended keyboard solo on the title track.
After hearing the entire album several times I must say that the style of music provided on their back catalogue didn't change that much on this new release. The four long tracks are once again dominated by the keyboards and most of the time the percussive way of playing has remained except for the opening piece Prism Path, where a more common keyboard sound can be heard used by other keyboard acts, including the fine synthesizer solo. The level of the compositions has also remained the same and therefore are once again very enjoyable.
I can only conclude that after an eight year break, Violent Silence can still release very entertaining albums. Most of all, those who are into keyboard-oriented progressive rock music will cherish A Broken Truce!

Robert James Pashman

Broken Truce album for sale by Violent Silence was released Aug 27, 2013 on the As Is label. .2013 album from the Swedish Progressive Rock band. After a lengthy hiatus Violent Silence unleash A Broken Truce, the follow-up to the critically acclaimed sophomore album Kinetic. Broken Truce buy CD music Creative motor, composer, lyricist and drummer extraordinaire Johan Hedman has added the talents of two new members to the mix, with both of the former keyboardists playing and supplying additional music on the album. Broken Truce songs New singer Martin Ahlquist possesses a more powerful set of lungs than his predecessor, combined with a vast tonal reach, surprising versatility and touching emotion. Broken Truce album for sale In addition to the spiced-up vocals, Anders Lindskog provides some beautifully wild fretless bass playing virtuosity to the already familiar double keyboard attack and Hedmans' energetic, propulsive and unorthodox drumming style. Broken Truce CD music The sometimes dramatic twists and turns of the music are highlighted by equally vivid and colorful lyrics. The resulting album is nothing short of a modern Prog masterpiece. Broken Truce CD music contains a single disc.

CD Universe

An album of beauty, poise and worth and one which Progressive Rock fans will lap up eagerly.
After eight years away Progressive Rock outfit Violent Silence return with their third release 'A Broken Truce', and "Epics" would appear to be the intention, with four tracks all reaching over ten minutes comprising the whole album. This creates a beautifully flowing and cohesive atmosphere where three keyboard players combine to make the lack of guitars on this album a point of interest rather than a disappointment.
The band themselves are made up of the core duo of Johan Hedman (drums and keyboards) and Martin Ahlquist (vocals), with guest bass work courtesy of Anders Lindskog, while the keyboards are bolstered by the skills of Hannes Ljunghall and Bjorn Westen. An unusual configuration you'll agree, but one which results in a glorious mix of Riverside, Yes, Genesis, the non aggressive side of Opeth and Brother Ape. All four songs are intricate and wide ranging in scope, while still relying mostly on strong melody over technicality, although Violent Silence hardly lack in this latter area either. As you'd expect with the guitarless keyboard tradeoffs, this is not a release liable to swipe you off your feet aggressively.
Rather, the longest track 'The Kingdom Below' builds through a variety of passages which combine dextrous playing, with Ahlquist's excellent vocals which vary from full bodied yet controlled expulsions, to restrained and fragile whispers. This aspect gives the music true scope, especially when the vocals are presented in beautifully arranged harmonies and set against some of the more hard hitting percussive work and darker keyboard themes which are explored in between the melodies. 'Prism Path' finds all of these elements colliding to great effect, creating memorable sections which keep you enthralled, as you eagerly wait to hear which of the many possible musical paths this band will explore next: a feature which also infuses 'Rim Of Clouds' and the album's closing title track.
Eight years in the making and in the waiting, Violent Silence have in that time conjured up an album of beauty, poise and worth and one which Progressive Rock fans will lap up eagerly.

Steven Reid

Decime, entre nosotros, ¿qué otro lugar te presenta bandas cómo esta? Otra muestra de creatividad y musicalidad puestas al servicio de nuestros oídos. Fijate si te gusta, porque como a los críticos que presentamos, te puede parecer un disco mediocre o un verdadero discazo, y eso dependerá de cadad uno.

www.violentsilence.net