In my circle of friends, I am the only one who doesn't find anything remotely interesting about Bane. So what does that have to do with this review? A lot actually since two members of Silent Drive are in Bane. That really doesn't impress me, what did grab me is that two members were in Drowningman. I have been awaiting the emergence of anything Drowningman related since the demise of the band and the ill-fated post-breakup Simon Brody ventures. So yah, my interests were peaked. Unfortunately for Silent Drive, Drowningman has reformed in the time since I first listened to Love Is Worth It, sending me scurrying to wipe the dust off my copy of How They Light Cigarettes in Prison.
The website for Silent Drive describes the band as taking influence from "Faith No More and Radiohead" but adding "punk rock sense of intensity and ferocity." Being the ultra-mega-huge Faith No More fan that I am, you can bet your ass there is going to be high expectations with a statement like that. Well those expectations weren't even close to achieved. That has to be the most inappropriate description of a band since MTV started calling Thursday screamo.
The album opens up decently, "4/16" sounds like Midtown, or any other of the dime-a-dozen emo-core band. The next couple tracks follow in similar manner. When vocalist Zach Jordan sings, his voice is bearable, it's when he screams that I just have to shudder because it sounds exactly like Disturbed frontman David Draiman. What makes it even worse is that, musically speaking, the tracks "Rooftops" and "Henpecked" sound a lot like the last radio hit from Disturbed. I don't know its name, but the fact that this sounds anything similar to that is very very bad. But when you add in Jordan's vocalist, I can't help but laugh at the similarities. "Broken Hearts Club" makes use of the piano, which is something rather refreshing on this rather tedious recording. While the piano does add some zest to the album, it unfortunately cannot save it, for as soon as the piano fades out "Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle" brings back the down-tuned guitars and the Disturbed images jumps right back into my head.
Silent Drive falls into that category of bands that I wanted to like based on their description and past-ventures, but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't do it. I would just be lying to myself if I said I enjoyed Love Is Worth It, and unfortunately for Silent Drive I can't lie to myself.
