Silent Vigil

The album in itself is great but ... the sound is so weird !!!! Volume is so low that u need to crank the volume to start enjoying... how this band allowed such a mediocre production and accepted to release it ???? Honestly I’m disappointed for the band and for their efforts to record a brilliant cd to finally end up with such mediocrity with sound engineering...

If you are a Bolt Thrower fan .. You should already know Memorium. Great band! .. this album & their debut are fantastic. Great meat & potatoes Death Metal .. No special sauces or sprinkles could make this music any better! A few more weeks and the 3rd album will be released .. I'm ready!!!

This album is not as good as For the Fallen but it's still a strong release. I wasn't a huge fan of this album at first; but each time I listen to it, it gets better.

The production is bad but the songs are good. Needs a remaster.

Excellent piece of music

Good Songs,but production sucks!No Volume!! Dissapointed after clean and crunchy For The Fallen.

Memoriam’s second effort, The Silent Vigil is a kick in the pants from their first album. While the first one was more consistent and a big nod to Karl and Andy’s former band Bolt Thrower, The Silent Vigil takes us in slightly new directions.With more twists and turns, and a little less pinch harmonics, which I noted from the last release, we get a maybe thrashier and punkier variety in the songs. This isn’t just a sludge or dronefest from the first minute to the last. There’s variation here which makes it all a bit more interesting.Karl’s vocals are exactly what one would expect and he hasn’t lost his mojo, not one bit. Andy’s drumming is as frenetic and (to me, anyway) as precise as always. Frank holds down the bottom end, keeps everything together, and sets up a solid melodic foundation. Now there’s riff master Scott Fairfax. Here, he manages to rein in his squeals and howls (pinch harmonics) more than on their first release and concentrates or solid and relentless riffing. It’s brutal and effective but also clean and well-defined. There’s no muddy mess to try and get through as with some bands. You can always tell what’s going on. Once again, my only wish is that he’d let loose here and there and burn off a few solos but hey, he’s so busy holding up that wall of sound, I can’t really complain. As the Brits like to say, he has me chuffed.Some have complained about the sound mix being too low. Okay, it is a bit low compared to some CDs I’ve had, but my answer to that is just turn it up! That’s what I did and it sounded just fine. I can still get it in my face with the twist of a knob. Then again, I play it in my car and not on a 500 watt per channel stereo, so maybe there’s something to that, but still. I’m already half deaf from being in the Air Force and I can still hear it just fine.As for the songs…after playing it every day, to and from work all week…my favorites are As Bridges Burn, Bleed The Same, The New Dark Ages, No Known Grave and the one I have to relate to, the very punky Dronestrike V3, with the silent few minutes near the end. I have a personal connection to that song, so it resonates.Memoriam is one of my new top favorite bands and when I spotted the brand new CD in the store, I dropped everything and snapped it up. I’m so glad I did. I don’t care what the naysayers think. I love it!Rock on Memoriam!