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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Edenya

Silence

Review by Gary Hill

This band is really intriguing. The sound is often dark and moody. The mix of sounds includes plenty of progressive rock, hence landing them under that heading, but there is a lot more here. Folk is a component of most of the music. Heavy metal shows up from time to time. Most of the vocals are female, but there are a number of points where the lead vocals are male. This set is unique and strong.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2021  Volume 4. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2021.

Track by Track Review
The Promise
This starts intricate and understated and grows outward with a dark sort of dreamscape kind of approach. Further down the road it rises up toward shoegaze and then powers out beyond that to some seriously metallic zones. It works out to a dramatic full on prog jam from there. I dig the violin work on the extended instrumental movement. The guitar gets positively incendiary at times, too. This keeps moving through shifts and changes, turning toward symphonic metal for a time, before eventually working out to a more powered up version of the song proper.
Sabrina
There is a dark, mellower, but somehow cinematic vibe to the opening movement here. It develops into some soaring prog that turns toward shoegaze at times further down the musical road. This gets so powerful when multiple layers of vocals come over the top later.
Broken Love
Coming in mellower and more melodic, this begins to build out from there. It has a symphonic edge as it drops back to even more ballad-like zones. It gets into more rocking zones as it continues. This instrumental is lush, rich and so powerful/.
All They Want
Intricate folk rock styled modes open this with male vocals. As the female vocals come in, they bring an operatic vibe. The piece continues to be shared with alternating male and female vocal sections. The majority of this cut is symphonic folk rock, but it goes turns heavier and metallic later. We also get some more pure prog at times, too. This is a particularly dynamic and powerful piece of music.
Will the Demons Win?
A dramatic and rather trippy introduction features spoken voices in other languages over the top. That eventually gives way to a more melodic acoustic guitar based arrangement. The male vocals come in over the top of that backdrop. The song grows from there. Eventually this becomes a driving prog jam with a shoegaze edge to it.
Chaos
Bass brings this cut into being, and it grows out from there with a spacey kind of vibe. This seems to combine shoegaze with space rock to create something both new and compelling. This gets into some pretty powerful zones as it continues to drive forward.
Silence
Not only is this the title track, but it's also the epic of the disc at over 11-minutes of music. A dramatic arrangement brings symphonic, folk and more pure prog elements to bear as this works forward. At a little after the three-minute mark a fierce electric guitar based takes control and moves the number into a nearly metallic motif. That section includes some killer guitar soloing. I'm reminded a little of Doro as the vocals return and this keeps rocking. After the four-and-a-half-minute mark, it drops to dramatic mellower textures to continue. Those evolve and hold the track for a while. Eventually an intricate acoustic guitar based movement takes control. The vocals come in over the top of that as it continues. There is a real folk rock texture as it grows outward. Proggy elements come in over the top as the arrangement fills out. This gets quite soaring and powerful as it marches forward.

 

Still Alive
Prog rock, folk and classical merge on this intriguing number. This is a potent and quite beautiful piece of music that really makes a nice closer.
  
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