INNERWISH – Silent Faces

InnerWish is a Classic Style Heavy Metal band from Athens, Greece, and Silent Faces is their long awaited full-length follow up album to Waiting For The Dawn, which was released way back in 1998. A major contributor to the time lag since their first album was differing opinions by certain band members regarding the musical direction InnerWish should take. Largely, the result of these differences was Yiannis Papanikolaou was replaced at the microphone by Panagiotis Myolonas, then by Babis Alexandropoulos (plenty of Greek in those names, eh?) and Pavlos Balatsoukas was replaced by Fotis Giannakopoulos, then by Terry Moros on drums. The personnel shifts, in all likelihood, go hand-in-hand with the inconsistencies present in the Silent Faces performances by these two recent additions – to be discussed a bit further in a few paragraphs below…

Musically, InnerWish has written 10 tracks for Silent Faces, each containing very enjoyable, basic guitar riffs and chord patterns with a superb “Classic” Metal sound. The guitar work and delivery by Manolis Tsigos and Thimios Krikos, along with the extended musical jam sessions present in each song, are definitely 2 of the 3 major strengths of this album … the 3rd strength being the solid bass guitar performance by Antonis Mazarakis.

The production quality is generally solid, however, a real opportunity to deliver added punch to this album was missed with the percussion sound. Moros executes well in this album, but his performance isn’t given due justice because the sound mix unfortunately subdues his percussion power and hinders his playing crispness. The effect, in the end, is similar to a 3-pronged stool with one leg slightly shorter than the other … the stool still serves the user’s basic needs, but total comfort is compromised because of the resulting lack of proper balance.

Alexandropoulos’ vocal performance is particularly perplexing. His voice, in certain ranges and when provided with variable vocal patterns, is both distinctive and impressive. Essentially he is impressive in 5 of the 10 tracks: “Dancer of the Storm,” “Hold Me Tight,” “If I Could Turn Back Time,” “Dreadful Signs,” and “Riding On The Wind” (the overall best song on Silent Faces). In the other 5, though, Alexandropoulos’ singing patterns flail around without notable direction, causing otherwise solid songs to come through with unjustified emotional yearning and despair, and end up coming across as repetitive and less than truly enjoyable. Additionally, these 5 songs seem to have analogous lyrical meter and vocal emphasis at similar points within each verse, causing each to grow stale quickly. There is also considerable reliance on vocal harmonizing, which is a noble concept in most cases, but sounds here like a group of chaste virgins bewailing the recent death of their tribal patriarch.

Back to a more positive note … the album starts with 3 rockers and they each kick arse! In particular, the 3rd track, “If I Could Turn Back Time,” features a beginning guitar riff that could easily fit into Accept’s classic Restless & Wild CD, and it totally rocks!

Based on these first 3 songs, it becomes quickly apparent this band has potential to really make a Metal statement – to make such a statement from start to finish, though, each future song written by InnerWish needs similar attention to ensure lyrical patterns and enjoyable vocal deliveries are customarily intrinsic qualities.

After these 3 gems comes 3 unmemorable tracks, then track 7, “Dreadful Signs,” which introduces some light synthesizer work, a steady drumbeat, and really good guitar powerchord patterns. Similar, is track 9, “Riding On The Wind” – it’s as solid of a song as you’ll hear today! In particular, Alexandropoulos demonstrates his true vocal capabilities during this song by varying his singing style and range in admirable fashion.

Avid fans of Classic Style Heavy Metal will likely be able to get past the short comings noted above about Silent Faces due to the band’s wise decision to provide extended musical jams within each song and the especially solid guitar and bass work. Most others will likely find this album to have definite strong points that are regrettably brought down by the 5 songs with vocal mishaps, making this album an overall average Metal effort. InnerWish is definitely worth checking out, but this album will likely only dabble into blowing away its listeners at periodic intervals. There’s no doubt that next time around, should InnerWish make the necessary adjustments in their writing style (especially in lyrical patterns and vocal delivery) and production process, they will indeed make great strides towards becoming a true force in the Classic Metal sub-genre.