THE BEAST

Silenced Minstrel - Volume 6 - Reviewed By Occult Black Metal Zine ! Check it out here at this link: http://occultblackmetalzine.blogspot.com/2021/01/silenced-minstrelvolume-6-ode-to.html

Malaysia's  Silenced  Minstrel  has  returned  with  a  new  recording  which  consists  of  re-mixed  versions of songs from his first 3 albums and  this  is  a  review  of  his  self  released  2020  album  "Volume  6-  An  Ode  To  A  Sickening  Year".

  A  very  heavy  sound  with  goth  style  keyboards  start  off  the  album  while  the  slower  sections  of  the  music  also  show  an  influence  of  90's  era  doom/death  metal.  Vocals  are  done  in  a  very  aggressive  screaming  style  along  with  some  shouts  also  being  utilized  at  times  and  spoken  word  parts  can  also  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording.

  Black  metal  screams  are  also  utilized  at  times  while  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs  also  add  in  a  decent  amount  of  tremolo  picking  and  blast  beats.  All  of  the  drum  beats  are  also  programmed  along  with  some  of  the  tracks  also  adding  in  a  small  amount  of  clean  playing  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Throughout  the  compilation  you  can  also  hear  a  decent  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  some  of  the  riffing  also  showing  an  influence  of  thrash  metal  as  well  a  couple  tracks  also  being  very  long  and  epic  in  length  Whispered  vocals  can  also be  heard  briefly  and  when  guitar  solos  and  leads  are  finally  utilized  they  are  also  done  in  a  very  melodic  yet  old  school  style,  a  later  track  also  adds  in  a  brief  use  of  death  metal  growls.  The  production  sounds  very  dark  and  raw  while  the  lyrics  cover  occultism,  immortality,  vampirism,  forbidden  love  and  depression  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  collection  from  Silenced  Minstrel  which  shows  a  completely  different  style  from  the  previous  recordings  I  have  reviewed  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  black  and  gothic  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  compilation.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Chaos,  Revisited"  "Another  black  year"  "Black  Hearted  Mystic"  and  "In  Memoriam:  October  Skies".  8  out  of  10. - Occult Black Metal Zine

Band: Silenced Minstrel
Formed: 2016
Band member (s): 
Silenced Minstrel – All instruments, vocals, sound engineer, programmer, producer
Genre: Death/Black/Gothic Metal
Country: Malaysia
Label: Unsigned

BIOGRAPHY

Silenced Minstrel (age 44 years, born Saiful Nizam Shukor, 28th March 1976) is a full time singer, songwriter musician from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Been playing music since 1991 he co-founded HALUN, a gothic black metal band back in 1996, produced several demos, one EP and one LP before the badly deformed monstrosity was laid to rest in 2015. Writing and producing mostly in his bedroom studio nicknamed “Sky Panacea Enterprise” he spent the entire 2016 gathering writing and recording materials for his debut album “Volume 1” choosing to name it as such as to not make it sounds too rockstar-ish. 

The sixth album “An Ode To A Sickening Year” is a compilation album from the first three albums, containing nine remixed and partially re-recorded tracks plus a tenth bonus-track at the end of it. It was intended as an allusion to the volatile evolution of the band’s sound during the past five years and, granted, the artist may or may not reuse these musical elements again in the band’s future releases.

The fifth album “Volume 5” saw the further development of sound and direction from the previous album, adding also an orchestral style instrumental black metal song as the last track of the album, a song that hearkens back to his old days in HALUN.

The fourth album “Volume 4” saw him disposing of all the gothic melodic stuff and straight into just vocals guitars bass and drums, trying to go as dry and as harsh as he can, tackling on darker themes like deviant spirituality, Satanism, atheism, philosophy and dark fantasy. Fast tempo is the name of the game; the drums gained more prominence and absolutely no melodic stuff present on this album.

The third album “Volume 3” saw him moving ever closer towards a more melodic black metal sound than the old one, this time the long ditched MIDI orchestra element restored along with some double-layered bass guitar tracks and even gloomier atmosphere than before, reflecting the state of his mind, body, spirit and environment that he’s at during that period of time; with traces of anger, hatred, betrayal and vengeance gracing every song in the album (he fully recovered from his decade long clinical depression that same year).

The second album “Volume 2” saw some maturity in his songwriting, the MIDI orchestra part ditched altogether and it also saw a fair amount of rough edges deliberately highlighted in the mix, and a lot more gothic atmosphere throughout than before especially in the lyrics department, where he wrote songs about the occult, immortality, vampirism and forbidden love between the mortal and the damned, also some cryptic poetic inclinations thrown to the mix just for the heck of it.

“Volume 1” is a combination of melodic gothic stuff mixed with thrash, death and doom metal riffs and black metal atmosphere, utilizing the most basic of guitar effects, cheap keyboards/ synthesizers and MIDI orchestra throughout the entire album to produce something that he’d always wanted to do: anything that didn’t sound like his former band! The album is completed in September but it be long after the production of the second album was underway when that album graced the scene...
The artist is currently occupied promoting his new album, gathering materials for future albums and also working on his other band “Shadowed Grace” playing New Age Scifi Fantasy Instrumental Synthesizer music. Silenced Minstrel is unsigned and is looking for exposure, a recording contract and developing fanbases all across the globe.

BAND AND ALBUM LINKS: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SilencedMinstrel
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SilencedMinstr1 
Bandcamp: https://silencedminstrel.bandcamp.com/album/volume-5 
Soundcloud:  https://soundcloud.com/saifulnizam_shukor
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3bzBoq26KOir3aZ9i2ObcE
ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/1442050547
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqCp_xPAXg-9bljJguBa3hQ?view_as=subscriber
CDBaby/Hearnow: https://silencedminstrel@hearnow.com 

DISCOGRAPHY:

Volume 1 (2017)
1 Chaos, Revisited
2 I Remember…Insanity
3 Black Hearted Sufi
4 Twilight Catharsis
5 Misery, Revisited
6 Enemy Within Me…
7 Johnny Demonic
8 13th May 69 (Instrumental)

Volume 2 (2018)
1 Into The Void
2 Morbid Endings I Wished For Them
3 I Shall Miss Quintessa
4 (Blood Red Flowers) Bleeding Moon
5 Entangled In Thorns
6 Another Black Year
7 Dark Deceptions
8 Another Black Year (Instrumental)

Volume 3 (2019)
1 Valedictory Sigh
2 Canto Diablo 1 – Demonic Epiphany
3 In Memoriam (Undertaker’s Lament)
4 In Memoriam (I Will Keep On Going)
5 Laying Down The Wreaths
6 Merentap Tirai Senja
7 Incantations In Tongues
8 Valedictory Sigh (Instrumental)

Volume 4 (2020)
1 The Black Journal Of Alkrun-Nar
2 The Dark Almighty
3 The Silenced Minstrel
4 Mortifications Of The Flesh
5 Godkiller (Forever Burning Me)
6 Dark Brotherhood Of The Mind-Benders
7 Laments From A Forgotten Age
8 The Final Journey
9 Canto Diablo 2 – Necrotic Mantras
10 Quod Damnum Omnis Spes

Volume 5 (2020)
1 Unenlightened Beasts
2 Twilight Of Religion
3 Hell On Earth
4 Descent Into Madness
5 Canto Diablo 3 – Plagued By The Future
6 Canto Diablo 4 – Ballad For Satan
7 Ex Lucis Tenebris
8 Night Hunt Of The Unseelie
9 Dirge Of The Eternal Winter
10 Regina Of The Blessed Moon (Instrumental)
An Ode To A Sickening Year (Remixed 2020 Compilation)
1 Chaos, Revisited
2 I Shall Miss Quintessa
3 Valedictory Sigh
4 Misery, Revisited
5 Another Black Year
6 In Memoriam: Undertaker’s Lament
7 Black-Hearted Mystic
8 Blood-Red Flowers Bleeding Moon
9 Canto Diablo 1: Demonic Epiphany
10 In Memoriam: October Skies