Silverstein – Arrivals and Departures

I had a conversation the other day with a friend who asked me, quite blatantly, “how can a band have such great influences but then sound horrible and carry no relation to those influences?” We discussed this idea for a while but came out with no real answer – maybe we should ask the guys at Silverstein that very same question because if Arrivals & Departures is any indication then they should be able to answer the question easily.

You see, their bio starts off with “The world was hungry for a fresh style of music after artists like Refused, At the Drive In, Thursday, and Taking Back Sunday all released their groundbreaking albums…” and continues to say “Inspired by the aforementioned bands, as well as the post-punk of the Smiths and The Cure, and the hardcore frenzy of Poison the Well and Lifetime, the band set out to fashion their own unique blend of emotional rock.” As hard as I try, I can’t hear those influences seeping in anywhere on Arrivals & Departures other than a slight Thursday influence and there’s nothing really “unique” in there either.

Instead, Arrivals & Departures just follows the generic style of sound of Victory’s new wave of screamo/pop-punk. Lead singer Shane Told switches between Underoath guttural screams to Hawthorne Heights nasally pop-punk vocals while the music carries on the in the same vein of most Equal Vision and Victory Records screamo/emo output (Chiodos, Cute is What We Aim For, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, etc.). It is very slick and over produced, making it somewhat crowded in the mix as very little as nothing is able to really standout on their own; other than the occasional guitar riff – My Disaster – and drum beat – If You Could See Into My Soul – that breaks away from the barrier and gives a slight inclination of what the band is capable of.

The odd thing about this album though, is that those inclinations are actually quite frequent in the album. More often then not they get lost in the mix, but if you pay attention, there is some great talent that does occasional shine through. The most evident aspect is the simple fact that the singing tend to outshine the screaming vocals, making songs like Worlds Apart and Here Today, Gone Tomorrow standout more since they aren’t dragged down by the generic screams but there’s also other elements in Arrivals & Departures that deserve a second look. The sing along/gang vocal ending of My Disaster stand out and while the obligatory slow closer, True Romance, feels overdone and forced Arrivals & Departures does contain enough of a variety amongst its songs that the listener can stay relatively content the whole way through.

Silverstein’s third album shows a marked increase in musicianship when compared to their earlier work, however, it’s still nothing outstanding. It’s rather generic and follows the same pattern of most new acts trying to puncture the top forty hit list; but at the same time, Silverstein does take it a step ahead of many of their competitors during a fair few instances and that makes them worthy of a few props.

So if watered down emo/screamo is your thing, then Arrivals & Departures will be right up your alley – just don’t expect to hear anything similar their influences that they so casually flaunt.