Silver Snakes – Saboteur

Silver Snakes is a band from the USA and recently released records on Bridge9 and 6131. The hardcore kid immediately will think about a full-blown hardcore band. The second fact is that the singer of Coheed and Cambria has signed the band for his new label and Pelagic Records from The Ocean has signed the band in Europe. Ok, so what has this say about the band’s sound?

On the third album ‘Saboteur’ the band is mixing alternative rock with Doom, Hardcore and Industrial. The songs have a typical rock structure but the electronic vibe of NIN is roaming on this piece of music. The singer Tomas Liljedahl of The Old Wind/Breach does vocals in “Electricity” while Sera Timms brighten up “Dresden”.

The band’s biggest selling point is to create catchy songs with the use of a broad variety of styles. While some influences (Industrial and Doom) are pretty extreme, the band has managed to write enlightened songs. The sparkling vocals of Alex Estrada are topping it off as Dustin Kenrue did in the fantastic Thrice. In songs like “Glass”, and “Red Wolf“ the ghost of the post-Hardcore band is floating around however the sound is heavier.

Overall the band stays in the mid-tempo regions. The loud banger “Devotion” with heavy growls feels like old Cave-In has visited the studio with Deftones sitting in a couch playing some tunes too. The diversity in the songs keeps the record fresh and the band takes the time to make the final point. The open guitar sounds of “Fire Cloud” concludes the first part of the record.

The production is open with mechanical touches and the stuff is played super tight. “Charmer” is benefiting from this approach. The industrial influences continue in “La Dominadora” and the repeating pace of “Dresden” has the same relaxing feel as hanging out on a boat during a hot summer day. The guitar solo and later the sludge riff with pounding drums makes the listener wet for the end epos “The Loss”. It has the same relaxing pace as the previous one while in an outburst Estrada screams “The Dream is dead”. What’s rest are rolling drums patterns and subtle guitar noises to stay Zen. Clapping hands conclude the album in harmony.

‘Saboteur’ proves Silver Snakes can be the next big heavy alternative rock band after Deftones and Thrice. Don’t sleep on this early highlight of 2016.

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