"Silent Memorial operate withing the same brand of progressive metal as Dream Theater does, and on "Retrospective" you will find a lot of the elements that characterize that style, such as odd time signatures, keyboard and guitar acrobatics, complex song structures and imports from various different rock genres. There is also something about this release that reminds me of Fates Warning from their 90s period (I think that's probably the vocal style of the singer).
I do not think that Silent Memorial are just a bunch of DT clones, although the influences are very obvious. I think that Silent Memorial certainly stand out from the mass of Dream Theater follower bands in that Silent Memorial also experiment considerably with groove, and then there are less ballads on this album than on your typical Dream Theater and Dream Theater inspired albums.
I recommend this album to fans of the type of progressive metal that Dream Theater pioneered and have been spearheading ever since their firs release. Oh, I also recommend this to James Bond fans - there's a nice surprise for such fans in the title track.
(review originally posted in Danish on heavymetal.dk and in English on metalmusicarchives.com)"
""Cosmic Handball" is very inspired by Dream Theater, it seems, and it offers pretty much run-of-the-mill progressive metal with dominant keyboards, odd time signatures, jazzy and shreddy guitar soloes and other guitar acrobatics, complex song structures, unexpected tempo changes, and very melodic vocals. The music is so complex and heterogeneous that one easily loses oneself in it.
This sounds pretty typical and unoriginal, doesn't it? Maybe, but Silent Memorial are so good at doing what they do, and they're fantastic musicians, the it becomes totally irrelevant whether or not their music is original or groundbreaking.
My favorite track is "I: Carpet Driver", which is full of so many twists and turns that it reaches the level of masterpieces like "At Fates Hands" by Fates Warning and "Erotomania" and "Stream of Consciousness" by Dream Theater. In contrast, the ballad "Lovely Galaxy" is some of the worst sappy music I've ever heard; it really sounds like a failed attempt at making a Queen-like epic ballad.
But all in all, a fine progressive metal album featuring some very skilled musicians. Recommended to fans of Dream Theater and progressive metal in general.
(review originally posted in Danish on heavymetal.dk, and in ENglish on metalmusicarchives.com)"
