Artist: Salvation Amp
Title: Hidden Faces
Genre: Goth Rock / Darkwave
Release Date: 28th June 2013
Label: afmusic
Album Review
A septic cocoon, saving the in- from the outside. Hermetic isolation, wherein guitars are blending void with dust, scratching settled molecules from the surface for unveiling and marking, for tearing up and smoothing. Sterility is deceptive and sterility is contagious. Ghoulish shapes conduct our thoughts through abandoned landscapes of emotion and perception. Deserts of despair, coasts of conation, oases of oblivion... past on the ancient valleys, where the giants ruled once, where the mercy was burned in kilns of clay, now nothing but an ashy skeleton, dancing to the rhythms of the machine. Dead but moving when the restless seeker goes astray by the sound of his own echo... circling in spirals through the mists of a frozen time... mirror for the hidden faces...
Erm, I should come back to the purpose now...
‘Hidden Faces’ is the debut album of the German trio SALVATION AMP (evolving from the nineties Goth outfit HOME OF THE HITMAN), re-released now with afmusic “to present it to a wider audience of fans of gloomy sounds”.
To be honest I feel a bit uncomfortable to call all this “Classic Goth Rock”, because in times like these that term is tinged with attributes like antiqueness, stagnation, gyration and dictate of the rigid norm. But is it really a blemish to deny oneself the zeitgeist intentionally? Isn´t that a kind of innovation actually, in times when idealism and creed are abundantly raped by trends and fast moving fashions, are hounded by the toothless bogie of success (as the observer whispers) and when the majority of “alternative” music slowly generates to a unitary, grey and shapeless sonic pulp? I don´t know but I dare to call ‘Hidden Faces’ Classic Goth Rock, because I can testify that the album is not devoid of ideas, sounds not fossilized and is not the umpteenth tame blueprint of various old and tired icons. On the contrary! The armour that bands like MERCIFUL NUNS have buckled on with audience appeal, and whose size could become questionable for some of the undead silhouettes appearing again and again in the twilight, is still glowing metal on the lower floors, forge- and shapeable and there´s no fear of rough surfaces or sharp edges.
Of course it´s the same ferrous and even the engravings sound familiar and encoded, but it´s a question of attitude and plausibility, a question of place and moment of origin. Songs like ‘Salvation’, ‘Pandorum’ and ‘Iceflower’ know their ancestors, undoubtedly, but there´s no cramped effort to hide that, no loudly sounding claim for an astounding discovery or musical new ground. And that´s good and that´s enjoyable, especially when the songs are well done! Art is and was always an analysis of defaults, quotes, set pieces and traditions and I don´t know why this should be wrong in modern times? If it helps to outline and create such great songs like the brilliantly melancholic ‘Stormclouds’ (the album´s peak in my mind), the lovely chthonic ‘Seeker’ or the disturbing melodic ‘Falling’ it´s more than a means to an end.
The journey is the destination... as a clever mind once said.
In that light ‘Hidden Faces’ seems like the outfall of guitar-based, emotional, melancholic, capricious, honest and plaintive rock music (give it a label you want), wherein traditional lores and modern translations unite for becoming an ocean, whose waters are deep but clear, rough but supporting. You can get lost on it and sometimes you think you´ve been here before but in the end you feel comfortably strange on its shores. And I´m quite sure that there a still a lot of great songs hidden on its ground.
Tracklist
01. Hear me
02. Salvation
03. (we are here)
04. Pandorum
05. She in the rain
06. Falling
07. Last night
08. Stormclouds
09. Iceflower
10. Hidden faces
11. Seeker
Line-up
Christ-Ian – Guitars, Voices
Andreas – Bass
Stefan – Drums
Website
http://www.facebook.com/salvationamp
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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