DRIFTING

SILUETLESS also sometimes written as SILUET / LESS, was a progressive metal band from Klaipėda, Lithuania and existed from 2004 to 2016. The band also stylized it's name with the phonetic [,silu:'et] and consisted of Eugene Golobokin (guitar, vocals, programming), Artur Mamin (bass) and Vainius Česnauskas (drums).

As [,silu:'et] it released "Theory of Dream" in 2008 and then it waited eight years before releasing DRIFTING as SILUETLESS. As an unsigned band, SILUETLESS released its material independently and DRIFTING was limited to 500 copies but also readily available on Bandcamp. The album features eight tracks at about 53 1/2 minutes.

This is a highly atmospheric album with a huge reliance on keyboards and synthesized sounds to create mystical atmospheres and ambient backdrops. The guitar, bass and drums add the metal aspects and the tempo is mostly set to middle of the road. Sounding something a bit like Porcupine Tree in the atmospheric department and a heavier version of a neo-prog band on the metal side, unfortunately DRIFTING is marred by the awful vocals.

I don't use the term awful lightly. The band's aim and accomplishments are totally out of sync with this one. Prog metal is one of the most demanding genres of music out there and requires extremely versatile and technically skilled musicians and vocalists to pull it off successfully. Well that's where we have a problem here. The musicians are decent but really don't extend beyond mediocrity and the vocalist? Just atrocious.

Unfortunately Eugene Golobokin was not gifted with the best singing voice and erroneously shoots for the stars by tackling a style of music he is woefully unqualified to take on. His vocals sound strained the entire time as he struggles to hit the right notes and even his monotonic lower registers where he is most at home don't prove to be pleasant listening.

Add to that the compositions on this are of substandard quality as well leaving little or nothing to really grasp onto. While the melodies are listenable and pretty much check off the prog metal requirements for the modern era, the music feels half baked with little or nothing to actually grab onto. Unfortunately this album offers few rewards and actually makes me cringe every time vocal parts come through. Now the instrumental parts where the guitars, bass and drums have a chance to shine is decent. Sadly this is not a very good album