Album Review: Silverstein - A Beautiful Place To Drown

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, which is essentially a way of saying everyone tends to get stuck in a rut at a certain point, and anything new is merely the sunlight beating down on us while we're down in our hole. There is some truth in that, but not always. As a music listener, I do tend to stick in my own box, but there are always new wrinkles to explore, and new paths to explore. Last year, I did that with Dream State, who were the first band associated with post-hardcore I found myself enjoying. And it's in that spirit I now take up this new Silverstein album, a band I haven't had the opportunity to listen to before.

It was by happenstance I came across the singles for this record, "Infinite" and "Bad Habit", which both struck me similarly to that experience I had last year. Silverstein is a fusion of punk, pop, emo, and perhaps even a bit of post-hardcore, which is not a sound you would expect me to gravitate towards. And yet, those songs had a wonderful blend of aggression and melody I couldn't deny. And so, here we are talking about the full record.

I know this comparison isn't particularly apt, but this record seems to me to be a better interpretation of what we heard Blink-182 trying to do on their most recent album. They are taking the power of punk, but tilted in a more mature direction. Whereas Blink didn't have the ability to pull that off without resorting to some wise-ass trolling, Silverstein throws in the occasional harsh vocal and breakdown to emphasize the depths they are pulling these songs from. Doing that while still keeping the songs energetic and catchy is a nice feather in their caps.

"Infinite" still stands out as the song you need to hear, because the slightly slower pace heightens the drama, and makes the harsh vocals stand out from the band's fury. It's exactly what you would expect from a band celebrating their twentieth anniversary; a song that knows how to put the band's pieces together for maximum impact. "Shape Shift" follows in similar fashion, and as much fun as the more up-tempo numbers are, it's when they throw more of their emo influences into the mix that the album hits its greatest strengths. That more emotional delivery has teeth to it, and it really gives us something to latch onto.

I also find the AFI vibe on "September 14th" a welcome surprise, and not just because of how far that band has fallen in recent times. It's a throwback to a moment in time I can remember, and hadn't thought much about recently. It's funny how something so simple can take us back like that.

Silverstein might be a bit outside my normal listening, but it's worth it to take risks now and again. "A Beautiful Place To Drown" is an album with a lot going for it, for several different audiences. We don't always get a lot of examples of how teenage music can grow, evolve, and mature as we get older. That's what this record is. The roots are obvious, but the branches have reached far above the soil, trying to grab the heavens. Silverstein have bridged the past and the present, and it's something quite lovely to hear. I'm glad I found myself taking this path.