H R H - R E V I E W S

ACT
Silence InsideOut Music

Comments:The gigantic wave of progressive rock releases is nearly covering all dry land left by now. The constant stream of releases from InsideOut should come to an end by now. Again, the German based label managed to bring another long awaited strike. This time from the charismatic outcasts of prog from Sweden: A.C.T. Silence is their fourth CD and again they delivered a magnificent piece of work.

Slowly thriving from their debut Today’s Report into one of the finer lined progressive bands around. A.C.T. always surrounded themselves with questions from day one. The Swedish rockers managed to embed superb melodic rock ingredients into their more elusive seventies and English rooted prog rock. “Truth is Pain” with its ongoing guitar in the end and slowly leading into the majestic “Puppeteers” with Rush reminiscent drum patterns and the crystal clear female voice that provides needed depth during the bridge and refrain. Finger licking sweet is the wonderful warm “This Wonderful World” with its lyrical twist differing from the warm emotional feeling presented soundwise.

Though some listeners may have get used to the charismatic voice of Herman Saming who brings back memories of the better days of It Bites shouter Francis Dunnery, the band also consists of two more voices that enable to shift forward and back whenever needed to power up the tracks in superb harmonies. Guitar player Ola Andersson and keyboarder Jerry Sahlin both spice up the sweet sound of A.C.T. Another trademark is their wonderful guitar sound and expressive bass playing from Peter Asp, backed by the already mentioned inspired playing of Thomas Lejon. “Out of Ideas” with its swing beats, “Hope” (with an amazing keys – guitar interplay), the keyboard pumped “Into the Unknown” and the poppy ear-sneakers “No Longer Touching Ground” and “The Voice Within”; it’s all simply brilliant melodic progressive rock. Stubborn is the band in the full frontal rocker “Useless Argument” and the funky reggae infected prog stomper “Call in Dead” which offers a wide range of emotions and depth as well as song structures!

The finest punch they throw however is the 22 minutes running masterpiece “Consequences” sub titled “The long one”! The track is divided into 9 chapters opened by the spitting progressive intros “Silent Screams” and “Introduction”, that lead us into the mind dangling “The Millionaire” and the eclectic “Joanna” with it’s firing guitars and impressive drum patterns. The smooth keyboard ballad “A Father’s Love” offers us some rest to spit into the extravert prog gem “Memory to Fight” that seamlessly could be connected to “Joanna” with it’s enthusiastic outbursts of expressive thoughts and playing. The eclectic feelings pumped and fired by some awesome guitar playing. “The Diary” reflects feelings directly connected to the songs theme and that of the entire epic track. It shifts emotions and towards the end it opens up a dark door with “A Wound that won’t Heal” with several mood swings throughout the song and slowly leading us into the warm outro “The Final Silence.”

The CD also features a multi media video track….

Well, A.C.T. won’t reveal their biggest secrets again. It is just impressive to see how the band managed to keep a lid on their musical spectre to let slip through an occasional ray of light and inspiration such as this. Silence adds up to their BIG picture and also downgrades a bunch of releases from bands in the genre. It is stubborn, outrageous and exceptional as always. It is yet another ACT by A.C.T.

www.insideoutmusic.de

HRH Rating: 9.1/10

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