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About The Broken Heart, The Brand New Skies
The moment Chris Chapple’s drums break silence to open Silk Abrasion’s debut album, The Broken Heart, The Brand New Skies, any fan of hard music will know, will feel that this is a serious and seriously good metal band. What will come later, after multiple listens, is that Silk Abrasion are more than just a tight, organic ensemble with well-honed chops; they’re the metal band that has written the soundtrack to the early 21st century.
It’s not just the relentless rhythm section of Tim Hankinson on bass and Chris Chapple on drums, nor is it merely the satisfying crunch and animal sounds of A.J. Brock and Chris Elliot’s guitars, nor the amazing range and expression of Ryan Alexander’s vocals as he slides easily from smooth-sung melodies to frenetic, syncopated screaming in one track. It’s not just the blistering sizzle of Dayton’s best-kept secret captured on tape. It’s not just that Silk Abrasion have taken up the genre and made it their own. It’s also that, at the end of the day, songs have to mean something for us to want to hear them over and over. Songs have to make us cry, cringe, sweat, march, get up off our lazy asses and do something, and these songs do all that and more.
Composed and recorded in late 2006, The Broken Heart, The Brand New Skies is a searing, unafraid exploration of heartbreak, both romantic and political. It’s 2007, the war won’t end, the politicians keep lying, the media keeps buying the lies. Who isn’t heartbroken when they watch the nightly news? And there’s personal heartbreak, always present, or always looming around the corner. In comes Silk Abrasion, laying all out for us to hear, the story of our own lives the anger and frustration that we feel, the simple but eternally comforting message ringing through the music: we are not alone.
And yet this isn’t an album of self-pity or wallowing in despair. After the pain comes hope. An album that begins with the frustration of “Brumski”, dips into the despair and helplessness of the war’s affects on us (”The Cannon”) and on our soldiers (”Big Country”) and screams out the pain of betrayal (”Cockmaster”) and emotional abuse (”She Breathes”) also promises rebirth (”Death of the Fly”) and vows endurance (”McJagger”).
Hence the title: The Broken Heart, The Brand New Skies. Like the Psalmist or a blues singer, Silk Abrasion stare without fear into the dark valley and see a light on the other side. “Some see the end as their beginning,” Ryan sings, and then later, “I can’t believe the broken heart, that set me free; I can’t believe the brand new skies that my open eyes they can finally see.” Mourning becomes dancing, or rather, headbanging, as the band offers to drive out the demons with the stomping pulse of their heavyweight groove.
