Sparrows – “Let The Silence Stay Where It Was” [Album Review]

Sparrows are one of those bands whose sound hinges entirely on execution. If done poorly, it’s a disaster, a mucked up ambition that fails utterly and miserably; teeny angst dribbling through poorly tempered instrumentation.

Here’s the thing though: this is good fucking stuff, and it’s entirely because of this band’s ability to deliver on promises. Let The Silence Stay Where It Was takes risks, and promises crushing riffs and trickles with intimate passages. It borders on the precipice of being too mushy and, at times, it approaches territory that would mark them as a caricature. But, just as it steps off the edge, it turns abruptly into regions that turn the listener’s attention ever closer.

There is something beautific about the skirting this band does on the line, between angsty melodrama and emotional impact, and they always manage to end up on the side of the latter. It also helps that they do this with crushing intensity. The power is in the composition, the mixture flowing like a yin-yang, feeding off of their polar opposites of horrendous face-melting obliteration and twee-like instrumental rummaging, with the majority of their middling approach, something akin to Incubus, Moneen and Cave In, taking centre stage through it all.

The only gripe I have are the sometimes “at-odds” lyrics and how they seem to tumble dry against the flow of the music, an effect best categorized as “I wrote these and now I want to fit them into the song” approach. But it’s worth it to hear the battery acid screaming or torn up emanations that distinguishes the vocals as something important, something urgent, and something that raises the bar of Sparrows above the rest of the noise passing for post-hardcore these days. Overall, this is an album that’s worth the wait, and will definitely stand out against the rest of this year’s releases.

Let The Silence Stay Where It Was Track Listing:

01. Three Four Two Five, Three Two Four Five
02. The Written Rules Of Choking
03. Carrying On With A Modern Lifespan
04. Cave Eater
05. If We Make It Over The Mountain
06. Teething
07. Waking The Red Sky Season
08. Tinnitus
09. Our Saviour Left Us For Dead
10. Fire In The House Of The Lord

Run Time: 45:29
Release Date: October 14, 2016

Check out the song “Cave Eater”