Silverchair
Frogstomp (1994)
Genre: Grunge, Alternative Metal
This band by far is my favorite Australian band ever, and this country
has it fair share of great bands. Now when these guys came out most people
wrote them off for jumping on the Grunge band wagon, treating them as posers,
but if you hear these guys even though you can hear influences from Pearl Jam, Nirvana
and Alice In Chains, they also have a strong influence from old school Black
Sabbath, being able to write super heavy head banging riffs, these dudes are
the real deal. Now Daniel Johns the vocalist is a impressive Singer but he has
a long way to go on a lyrical level, Suicidal Dream is just too much and it's
no well written for example, but on the other hand he just kills it on Tomorrow which is a mega rock anthem, you can see he has potential. The band in general is super solid, but also has room
to grow, so we have a pretty good first album, but the best is yet to come.
Overall: 48
Freakshow (1997)
Genre: Alternative Metal, Post Grunge
The band starts searching for the own sound diving more into heavy metal, exploring
melodic post grunge and you also get little a taste of their more experimental
side too. There is more money for production so the heavy stuff sounds heavier
and you the addition extra instruments
on a couple of songs. This album in general is an improvement from their last and basically
leaves the listener wanting more.
Overall: 55
Neon Ballroom (1999)
Genre: Alternative Metal, Post Grunge, Alternative
Rock
This is the first Silverchair album where you can
really hear a colossal progression in the writing and playing, slowly becoming
more sophisticated. The piano and string
sections become an important part of the band's sound, there some beautiful
piano arrangements like on Emotion sickness that really impresses, and you can
tell that these guys were the precursors for dudes like Muse. The band never get lost
in all the additional production and musicians, they actually flourish, but the
best is yet to come from these guys.
Overall: 56.5
Silverchair
Diorama
(2002)
Genre:
Alternative Rock, Alternative Pop, Neo Progressive, Alternative Metal
This
album is probably Silverchair’s best production, if you never have listened to it,
go out and get it somehow; it’s a real breath of fresh air, in the Alternative
Rock/Metal world. They have shredded their somber moods for a reinvigorated new
positive style.
Vocals and Lyrics: Daniel really pushes himself vocally,
and lyrically moving away from “I hate myself songs”, and has a couple of colossal
choruses up his sleeve. 10
Instrumentation:
Guitar: Daniel wrote most of this album on piano, so
when you translate this to guitar it leads to some complex chord progressions;
it’s really interesting how sophisticated some of the songs are.
Bass/Drums: Both of these guys are at service to the
needs of the song, but both land some cool arrangements here and there.
Keys, String and Horns: There is some ambitious stuff
here in this department it takes the album to a whole other level, Van Dyke
Parks who has worked with the likes of Beach Boys, U2 and Ringo Star, does an impeccable
job with the band. 8
Melody and/or Structure: The band has really matured
in their composition abilities. 10
Sound, Production and Feeling: The sound for this
project is just perfect, lots of attention to detail. 10
Songs: Some of the best in their catalogue. 11
The Bad: It lags briefly near the end.
Originality: We find a band the redefines their sound completely,
and passes the test with flying colors. 10
Overall: 59
Silverchair
Young
Modern (2007)
Genre:
Alternative Rock, Alternative Pop, Neo Progressive
Man this album took me a long time to warm up to it, I was pist that the band
had abandon their old school Sabbath type riffs altogether (they were really
good), Daniel Johns (Vocalist/Guitar/Keys), had lost it in his ambition to
break the mold of a power trio. But after a work trip to Paso de los Libres, I
sat down to listen to this album, and I was blown away. I listened to it in a different
mindset (not thinking about their previous stuff) and I discovered an intelligent
and super sophisticated album.
Vocals and Lyrics: Daniels keep pushing himself vocally, trying
to find a new voice sounding like a young Peter Gabriel at moments. This guy
pretty much never repeats himself so
there’s always new and interesting stuff in his department on each album. 9
Instrumentation: The Band is at serves to the songs,
everything they do is for the sake of the songs, and this reflects the maturity
of the band. Instrumentally theirs is some freaking interesting stuff going on
in the background.7.5
Melody and/or Structure: Look it’s not as mind blowing
in instrumental arrangements as Diorama is but, "Those Thieving Birds…” track
is there first epic song in their catalogue and they nailed it, in their first try. 10
Sound, Production and Feeling: It’s a freaking weird
album its happy and up-tempo, but without sounding like a stupid pop album, or
not going into a adult contemporary sound like Incubus did in “If not when?”
killing all the energy. It’s mixed like a rock album, so even though no more distorted
guitars it has tons of energy. 10
Songs: It’s the first Silverchair album with no
fillers!!!!!!, a problem that plagued the band in every other album 13
Originality: To bad up to the date this is their last
album, it would have been interesting to see these guys evolve their new style
and tour with Muse 10
Overall: 59.5
