Cyferdyne - Keep Your Silence

I always get excited whenever I'm about to review something that was released by DWA, and that feeling maintains the same with Cyferdyne's latest release, Keep Your Silence. I have never heard from these guys in the past except hearing their name mentioned on community forums here and there, but based on a previous review on the site (See here: Genesys), I have something to really look forward to from the technological hands behind this act.

With the departure of their previous programmer/producer/co-vocalist in 2013, DJ Andy McBain replaced the old member, and has come out silencing all those who might doubt his talents with his debut work on the project. With the album being written by the previous line-up, but recorded and produced by the new line-up, fans have something to securely hold them in place while delivering a newer sound.

To start off the whole serenade, Cables and Codes delivers a definite track that layers dance beats with lighter electronic synths taking over the main structure of the song. The vocals take quite a soothing path with the slightest hint of aggression, but really maintain a calmer atmosphere.

Jigsaw comes in second, really homing in on a more quiet beat. Similar song structure to the first lets out a decent musical number, but the song comes out more soothing, with more trance elements present.

Disease brings forth a heavier track with a solid, more bass built EBM rhythm with electronics playing over it. The addition of a second set of chords that are whispered, yet distorted here and there allow for a darker aspect to come across in the song.

For the first few seconds of Glass, a bit of a drone note was hit off, until a more rock accented sound came out with guitar playing off. Industrial rock comes into mind during the outbreak of this song, and provides a fairly powerful punch to the album.

Going back to a softer territory, Weak shot in next. The second set of chords, the distorted, whisper-like ones, felt out of place in the overall sooth sound of this track. I think it would have done much better without them.

With a set of ambience working with piano in Clockwork, I was astounded by the overall beauty of it. A low guitar hum rings in the song, along with a few electronic touches, but overall the song maintains a fairly ambient and classical feel to it. Very well done.

Back into dance territory, Prayer continued on a few of the other songs designs, but Escape brought in elements of drum'n'bass to freshen up the course. The mix of synths with it allowed for a better tune to play out.

With the inclusion of more synth work, Numb didn't really push out anything not heard on the album before, but really resurfaced tried tactics; Cyferdyne can definitely pull this off.

Fracture included some more light piano work in the background, and made up for a pretty well done slower song. Not bad by far, this turned out to be another highlight on the album. And, the last track hit faster and will certainly get you moving.

Now, I did enjoy myself while going through this album. Fun, fast for the most part, and energetic tunes lock you up and don't let you go until the end. While some of the tracks focus on a similar song structure to one another, they still show off Cyferdyne's ability to take something and work it out into a new sound and mechanism. I'd say I was impressed with the album, and thought it was good. I want to see what they'll crank out next.

Aug 10 2014