Silent Love of Death is a new band from Spain, consisting of the brothers Juan Carlos and Miguel Angel Toledo. Together they have created over an hour of dark and atmospheric music on their debut album. The music cannot be easily put under one label: there are influences from apocalyptic folk, dark wave, neo-classical, gothic rock. The general impression is one of drama and romanticism, which is enforced by the lyrics, which are inspired by poems from the likes of Poe, Blake and Baudelaire.
The instrumentation is quite varied: apart from (acoustic) guitars and (sometimes military) drumming Silent Love of Death employs violin, trumpets and keyboards. A characteristic trademark are the deep male vocals. When listening to this album I’m reminded of a diversity of other artists. ‘Growing apart’ makes me think of early Dead Can Dance, while a more rocking piece like ‘Traitor down’ reminds me of Ikon. Some other references I could make are Engelsstaub, early Death in June, And also the Trees or Novalis. This is not to say that Silent Love of Death are not original enough, they just know their musical history.
Perhaps the cd is too long, therefore it becomes a little tiring in the end. Also the vocals don’t convince me at all times. But overall I think this is a pretty good cd, for people with a sense for romance and drama and a broad musical taste. Silent Love of Death know how to play and create a moody atmosphere.
