Cadaveria - CD Review
Silence

CD Info
2014
Scarlet records
11 tracks
English lyrics
9.5/10

Cadaveria has long been a favorite of mine. That goes back to previous bands and continues through her solo material. But “Silence” has never been a term I would have associated with her. However, with this release, there seems to be a softening of the music a little, if not of the lyrical content. Cadaveria has long been associated with harsh vocals, one could argue that she wrote the book on the subject. But only recently has she shown us a glimpse of a solid “traditional” female vocal style. It’s a little more in evidence here but that’s probably not where the CD title comes from. In fact, the lady addressed the title in response to questions on a website recently: “As I said in the official statement we released when we announced our new upcoming album some months ago, ‘Silence’ is an immense and supreme ‘sound-folly’ that celebrates the capri-ciousness of destiny, the fugacity of life and the eternal presence of darkness in light. An instinc-tive impetus made of pure emotions, calibrated by awareness and experience. This album repre-sents our maturity as musicians and the highest and most sincere expression of myself as an artist and as a woman. These new compositions are extremely gloomy and sinister, but they give off an explosion of power, intense energies and deep sensations. ‘Silence’ will guide you into a carnival of imagination and reality, where doom and free will are playing their last chess game. I’m sure it will leave many people speechless… Each song has its own identity, no one represents the whole album, so you must listen to it in its entirety!”

The music, in general, follows the traditional Cadaveria approach to things; its hard, crunching metal that will be appreciated by any and all metal heads. There’s a few components that lesson the pounding, but they’re just there to confuse you. The girl kicks out the jams, always has, al-ways will. But, with Cadaveria, what I’ve always liked most was the poetry. Not everyone will focus on that component but it’s not that hard to capture while listening. The girl is a bit on the difficult side to understand in conversation, I’ve had the pleasure of trying, but, while singing, her English seems to be near perfect. And, I’ve been loving her thoughts now for a lot of years, maybe since Congressum Cum Daemone from the Opera IX release The Black Opera, a track that has wiped out at least 3 iPods for me over the years I’ve listened to it so much. And, I still do. Again, the lady addressed this compo-nent and it’s relation to the title saying: “The album title is connected with the lyrics’ content. Silence lyrics are the result of my reflections, sometimes very agonizing, about what happens in me and around me. We can define them as the recording of my mental flow (stream of con-sciousness). The analysis of things, facts and feelings produces a lot of mental noise. When I de-fine my thoughts in a lyrics, this noise begins to fade out and when I read it I reach a higher level of knowledge. When I perform and record what I wrote, my soul enters a period of calm, it makes peace with itself and finally the silence comes. This is a first level of understanding for Silence. In a second instance I must say I’m very proud and satisfied by this new record, I think it features high level songs, so ‘Silence’ is also a way to say: let’s the music speaks by itself. It is not important what kind of genre CADAVERIA play and who we are. Just close your eyes and listen to Silence.” So maybe that’s one interpretation of the origin of the “Silence” title. OK, works for me. Interestingly enough, the Queen of the Night also addressed the music in her own words here ( ). And, trust me, she looks better talking about it than I ever could.

Well, let’s look at a little of the material with a focus on the lyrics which, as I mentioned, have always driven the material for me. I can’t think of a bad musical composition on the release, some may be slightly better than others but that would be a personal preference, not much need to talk about one being better than others. But, for me, what drives the evaluation process is the subject of the music, what’s being said in each specific track. So that’s what I’d like to focus on.

We start with Velo (the other side of hate). Trust me, this is no love song, at least not in the tra-ditional sense. The music pounds, our lovely Italian screams:

I know it will not be forever, but this is happiness and it’s enough
Now I can see the colors
Now I can feel the voice of silence and satisfy my soul
No way to think to anything else
Deep and new vibrations are engaging my mind
Now I can see the colors
Now I can feel the voice of silence and satisfy my soul
I hate orders, I’m extreme. / Openness and sincerity
Don’t look for anything more, / no property, no egoism, no plans
just give me a reason to come back and stay.

Carnaval of Doom slows it down a little. Cadaveria does this kind of switch in pace nicely with all her material. But here we get into those straight vocals, it’s like a switch was thrown and we’re working with a different band. You didn’t get that with the original work the Italian did but it’s starting to occur with a little more regularity these days. And, she’s got a nice straight voice to work with. Just don’t expect opera soprano any time soon.

The Soul that Doesn’t Sleep begins, inter-estingly enough, with a sound that seems to herald a symphonic direction. But, that’s not going to happen. We do get some different vocal styles again. Cadaver seems to have a couple ap-proaches that can be described as traditional vocal styles. The one here is kinda haunting, but a very nice sound. You get something similar in Death, Again. But, with a title like that you al-most expected it. This one is more in line with the typical funeral waltz, once can see the ceme-tery with the mourners lined up. It’s almost a traditional Doom track, but with those switches between alternating vocal styles.

Some of the tracks at the end of the release take us to some serious psychology based thinking. Cadaveria is a videographer but, in many of her releases, there seems to be a fascination with psychopathology. Sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. In Strangled Idols she says:

I’m two voices, duality, I’m a witch that must not count to ten
Time after time all idols have been strangled
resignation to uncertainty, resignation to the essential asymmetry of the world.
Day after day all idols have been strangled.
In this mute instant of silence all reality seems to have its own reason to exist.
Life! Death! Time! Pain! Joy! Silence

Well, maybe that’s what the “Silence” is referring to.

Anyway you look at it this is an interesting and entertaining release, as is everything my favorite Italian does. Outstanding poetry expressing a range of interesting thoughts. And performed by a multitude of vocal styles. It’s like getting a choral presentation from the Institution for the Damned with all the voices in their heads contributing. Can’t ask for more than that.

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