OC Music Magazine

Some of you may remember Silent Treatment from an earlier feature; those of you who were not with us during our infancy, feel free to check out Michelle?s piece here.  Her interview went live late July when the band had just finished pre-production of their latest album, New American Dream.  
    Receiving the finished product, I pulled out my old school CD player and set to work.
    The album opens with New American Dream, a fitting title for both track and album as hard rock riffs disguise an Americana feel ? with the same feel as tracks such as Route 66 and other road trip must haves.  The opening vocals are eerily similar to Jyrki 69 of the 69 Eyes (who coincidentally also enjoyed an August album release), which evolve into growling rock lyrics and welcome me to the ?new American dream.?  The track is very rock heavy and features catchy pre-choruses, a flowing bridge, and a stop and go guitar solo that defines the Silent Treatment sound.
    Next is My Friends, which opens with biker bar guitar riffs and vocals that keeps the album momentum building.  Track 3 is Animal, which again provides eerie, almost Goth-like vocals.
    You and I breaks up the hard rock into what can only be defined as a power ballad: broken guitar chords, flowing piano chords and rim shots on the snare ? oh, and inspirational lyrics building and falling throughout the song.  
    Surrender picks things up again, but instead of returning to the American rock of the first 3 tracks, it builds a heavy hard rock track featuring tight rhythm syncopations.
    This feel continues into Fear, an in your face track that hit me instantly from the start.  The song does stumble through a cliché lyric or two (?keep your friends close and your enemies closer?;), but maintains a very forward moving track that quickly became one of my favorites on the album.
    For Love Me Two Times, the best summary I can give is simple: Nirvana.  For a moment it seems as if Kurt Cobain lives again through Dave Rosales in the opening lyrics; it?s almost disturbing how similar the sounds really are.
    Some Other Way will move you with it?s powerful and confident vocals.  It?s an awesome sound with building instrumentals that I would closely align to Nickleback tracks.
    Track 9 is Sins of Yesterday, returning to Silent Treatment?s hard rock ways and optimizes stops and breaks for a syncopated and moving song.
    Steal the Sun closes out the album, moving as a circle back to New American Dream.  The Jyrki 69 lyrics pop out of the texture, giving some familiarity to the track even if it?s your first time listening.

    NEW AMERICAN DREAM is available from Silent Treatment?s MySpace.  The band will be performing at Anaheim?s House of Blues September 11th so be sure to check them out!

Photo Credits: MySpace.com