Burak Ozmucur - in Silence

Do you like your progressive metal with absolutely no pretense? No Alexi Laiho flipping his hair around while pulling funky faces, no white makeup, not even a black tshirt in sight? Burak Ozmucur, a new Turkish-by-way-of-New Jersey solo artist who has already released one EP and is gearing up for more, made me realize that I indeed do like metal and progressive metal when it's stripped down both musically and visually. It exposes the bare bones of the genre and - dare I say it - the beautiful tones and emotions that can be coaxed out of metal. There's great musicianship and great depth of feeling to be had here, and Ozmucur shows us with his debut In Silence that sometimes that's really all we need out of our music.

I'm going to go ahead and guess that Burak Ozmucur has some modicum of formal training in at the very least music theory and piano. He also learned some great production skills along the way, as he wrote and produced all the songs and plays all the instruments on In Silence. The three-song EP is a stripped-down, progressive metal style in guitars and drums, but Ozmucur's vocals are eerily similar to those of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, though I must say Ozmucur is on pitch much more often than Staley ever was (RIP). Similarly, Ozmucur's guitar and five-string bass playing are near flawless. This combination of progressive, ambient metal with raspy, alt rock vocals makes for an even more haunting and beautiful sound than either genre has achieved in quite a while.

In Silence opens with 'The Departure,' a lyrically emotive track with a deceptively simple guitar riff. Ozmucur posted a video on his Youtube channel for this song, and it looks more like an instructional guitar video than anything else. Simply Ozmucur in a room playing and singing the various parts of the song in close-up, the video is somehow even more emotionally evocative than if it had been stylized and arty. Sometimes simply watching a musician practicing his or her craft is more moving than all the visual effects in the world, and Ozmucur proves it with this song and video.

'Far' is the next track on In Silence, a more bass-heavy track which evolves into a somewhat ambient, wall of sound-style guitar crescendo. That is indeed Ozmucur's five-string bass in the opening of the song, not a guitar played in a drop key. The video for 'The Departure' shows Ozmucur's skill with this instrument, and in 'Far' he really opens that puppy up before launching into the guitar sequence. Here the vocals sound a bit less raspy and more operatic, similar possibly to Chino Moreno from the Deftones. This works well with the shoegazer-style rhythm guitar, but Ozmucur can't help but show his metal chops once again with some lovely shredding towards the end of the track. The subject matter of the lyrics, a pining after something too far out of reach, is complimented by this wistful and haunting musical arrangement.

The EP closes with 'The Clouds.' Once again Ozmucur's five-string bass is front and center in the opening of the song before the guitars take over. Pobably the most metal-sounding rhythm guitar and drums on the EP, these elements come on and back off at intervals, allowing for another simple-sounding ambient guitar to be the main focus. When the heavier guitars come in, the solo guitar stays, encircling the whole composition and creating a contrast with the very metal backing track. This is definitive progressive metal. The lyrics here are sparse but powerful, discussing the need to embrace the dark side of one's life and psyche in order to truly understand oneself. Again, music and lyrics work together to paint an evocative and emotive picture of Ozmucur's thoughts and feelings.

Burak Ozmucur is, above all else, in love with music. Though his lyrics are profound and very personal, one gets the sense that he would be just as happy to be all instrumental. He is so adept at connoting feelings and stories with his song composition and instrumental performances, the lyrics are just the icing on the cake. This talented solo artist is just starting out so I can't say for sure that the lack of pretense in his music and videos will be a constant, but it seems this kid is choosing his own path when it comes to how he releases his music, and even who hears it. In Silence released in late 2013, but you're hearing about it now because Ozmucur is gearing up to release some more work soon, and this is your chance to get in on the ground floor with a solo metal artist sans all the metal pomp and circumstance. No pretense, no dramatic makeup, just beautifully written and performed progressive hard rock from someone who has the passion and drive make it beautiful and make it mean something. Apr 22 2015