Horrendous are leaders of the modern, forward-thinking death metal scene, while Crypt Sermon channel the sounds of traditional doom, and now members of both bands have come together as The Silver, who sound entirely different than both Horrendous and Crypt Sermon. The band — which includes brothers Matt and Jamie Knox of Horrendous, Enrique Sagarnaga of Crypt Sermon, and Nick Duchemin — said that their goal was to start "a metal band where we weren’t hiding behind the typical metal tropes." "We wanted to do something rooted in black metal sounds without being a black metal band—and with more vulnerable lyrics. We collectively wanted to find the magic in regular human experience, both horrific and sublime."

Their debut album Ward of Roses is out today via Gilead Media (pre-order), and it makes good on that promise. With a mix of blackened screams and gothic metal clean vocals, and instrumentation that embraces black metal, doom, post-metal, and just a bit of classic shredding, Ward of Roses presents familiar elements in an exciting, new way. And the lyrical themes based on human experience add to how authentic the music feels. The album pushes metal forward by honoring some time-tested traditions but never being afraid to branch out from them.

To get an even better feel of the album's lyrical content, the band gave us a track-by-track breakdown where they discuss the concepts behind each song, and you can read on for that and stream the LP…

"Fallow"

Fallow magnifies our desperate attempts to cling to a love that is destined to fail. As the song unfurls, it traverses the mythic scale of our efforts and sufferings tending to relationships that can ultimately never bloom. It is an elegy sounding the depths of our dreams of love and the mourning we face when they evaporate in the light of day.

"Breathe"

Breathe is an ode to the martyrs who’ve entered our lives-both those we’ve sought, and those who were, by chance, given to us. It’s about the pain of knowing that what they’ve sacrificed for you can never be returned, and that, despite your best efforts, you are powerless to save them. Musically, Breathe circulates between hazy, nostalgic dreamscapes and the raw suffering of one’s private Golgotha, evoking all the while the monuments we all build to pain.

"Vapor"

Vapor speaks to the immaterial nature of being. Lyrically following two different, but related, paths inspired by personal experiences. The first path walks the line of witnessing the self-imposed destruction of a loved one; the other, is the singular experience of being isolated in a strange place and coming to grips with the fact that you are indeed, alone. Musically, Vapor treads all of these paths, whether the ritualistic extinguishing of a soul’s fire, or heeding the call of the empty and endless night.

"Gatekeeper"

Gatekeeper explores the politics of control and subservience, and the ways in which we deform and flagellate ourselves beneath the shadows that loom over us. It is a spiteful yet forthright admittance of the pleasure we’ve learned to drink from the cup of pain, and the manipulations–both personal and institutional–that we endure and internalize at the hands of power, accepting the lie that we are all ruin made flesh.

"Behold, Five Judges"

Another movement inspired by a personal experience, Judges… lyrically explores being faced with an extremely trying test at the end of a long journey. The mental solace of the said test lying in the comfort of being able to come “home,” reaching that point only to realize there is nothing there for you. Musically, the listener is walked through the story from the feelings of being on trial, coming home to be cut down, and ultimately being left in the embers of pride.

"Ward of Roses"

Ward of Roses is a meditation on the moments where our abstract concepts of death are shattered by the living, breathing reality of loss. It’s about the passing of a long time friend, and the devastating reality of coming face to face with his mother and countless other mourners on the day he left us. The song is a single musical phrase, repeated deliberately, like a prayer–our personal offering in remembrance of him, and a hymn of reverence to all other fallen guardians.

"Then Silence…"

Sometimes, love wasn't meant to be.