SILENT PLANET // Sign To UNFD And Announce Album Details

Aug 17, 2018 / WORDS The Editor / PHOTOS Jonathan Mazaltav / The would is ours

UNFD are thrilled to announce the signing of Californian metalcore band Silent Planet to their roster worldwide (excluding North America).

Alongside the signing news, Silent Planet have announced their third album, When The End Began, will officially be released on November 2.

Currently on tour around Australia with Make Them Suffer, the band have already given us a taste of what’s to come via their first single Vanity of Sleep and today they reveal Share The Body, a dark examination of the opioid epidemic.

Frontman Garrett Russell explains the concept behind Share The Body further: “Share the Body explores the brutal opioid epidemic that is ravaging communities around the world. Approaching addiction from the inside-out, our song and video attempts to follow the genesis of addiction (pharmaceutical) all the way to narcotics and subsequent overdose. Many of the lyrics and themes stem from conversations we’ve had at shows and online with our listeners. It’s our hope that this track starts difficult conversations, and inspires some who are struggling with addiction to open up and seek help.”

All creativity is a dialogue. Every song, painting, innovation or poem is just the latest statement in a conversation that is as old as human civilisation. And Silent Planet intend to add to this dialogue. Weaving together topics that range from historical injustice to the existential despair of modern life, Silent Planet have a message that burns with a hardcore indignation, while coupled with progressive instrumentation.

In the band’s latest effort When the End Began, frontman and lyricist Garrett Russell explores the obscure and mystical Nietzschean concept of ‘Eternal Return’ as it relates to the human experience. Haunted by recurring dreams of war, famine, and dead planets and further exacerbated by health complications and surgery, Russell was drawn to explore the concept of apocalypse in this latest batch of stories. When the End Began delves into instances of global and personal crisis—watershed moments between and within humanity—and aims to draw connection between the two.

Since their inception in 2009, Silent Planet have never looked for handouts. The band first gained prominence due to their vast array of intellectual influences, anchored by Russell’s masters degree in psychology and field experience as a mental health therapist. However, it is their remarkably intimate connection with their listeners (who they often refer to as ‘Lovers’ rather than ‘fans’) that has become their trademark in the music scene. Perhaps no single event better speaks to their grassroots base than their surprise, underdog victory in the Underground Band of the Year category at the 2017 APMA awards.

With this third full-length release, the band will establish themselves not as a mainstay in the genre, but as sonic trend-setters. Primary song architect and guitarist Mitchell Stark pushes the band into increasingly aggressive territory in this new release, accented by the distinguishably refined and progressive drumming of Alexrene Camarena. Furthermore, the album showcases a wide vocal array, thanks to the dynamic singing range of bassist Thomas Freckleton, who vacillates between anthemic choruses and contemplative verses throughout the record. In a genre fraught with cliche, Silent Planet have produced their most deliberate and cohesive effort to date.

When The End Began is further complimented by the talents of producer Will Putney, who, in his second effort with Silent Planet, has managed to capture the band’s aggressive live sound mix while retaining their more exploratory ambient elements.