Ensuing Silence is a three piece that hails out of Waterloo/Kitchener Ontario. I always find it interesting when there are three members to a band, mostly because you are somewhat limited to the sound that the band can create, unless you have a couple of guitars and pedals. The members of Ensuing Silence are Lee Aldridge on Lead guitar and vocals, Chris Fleming on Bass Guitar and Vocals, and Bob Little on Drums. 

The first song on the album is “Handlebars”. At the start of the song there is a higher pitched punk style of guitar chord stepping. The main riff of “Handlebars” that is played at the start of the song appears a couple of times throughout the song. As the song goes when the Lee switches to a higher pitch on his guitar Chris I find helps keep the heaviness and the deepness sound with his Bass Guitar which I find helps the song out. At 2:38 the song sounds as if it was finishing into a quiet lead off finish but then about ten seconds later a heavier guitar riff starts off and the song continues for about another minute and a half. There are no lyrics in the second part of the song; I liked the second part of the song more than the first part. Mostly because how the song is heavier in this section somewhat reminds me of a couple of Metallica tracks. 

“Thorn In My Side” follows up “Handlebars”, the vocals at the starting of the track is almost hidden from the heaviness of the guitars and drums. The starting guitar riff in the song again shows signs of new punk within the guitar. The vocals are a bit different in this song because in parts almost being spoken. Also during the first couple opening lines the vocals are stepped and kept in line with the instruments. I also found during the song that the instruments are doing their own thing and don’t really match up with the lyrics all that much. It is almost like the instruments were recorded first and then the vocals were added later on to match the instruments in some parts of the song. Not that this is a bad thing it shows to me the punk styling in the band. 

“Dark Crawl” is the last track on the album. “Dark Crawl” is my favourite track on the album. At the starting of the song there is a small drum solo which is followed in suit with bleeding style of guitar. The main riff of the song is what I like most about the song; it is nice and simple and has a nice heavy edge to it. The Bass guitar is what really carries out this song for me. The ending of the song is carried out by the vocals, that carries out the last note for about ten seconds or so; I found this was a good track to put at the end of the album because of the way the vocals finish out the track. 

www.ensuingsilence.ca
www.myspace.com/ensuingsilence

Matt Hartwick
m.hartwick@partyinkingston.com