SILENT FORCE
“WALK THE EARTH”
(AFM)

D.C. Cooper is one of my all time favorite singers/musicians in the metal scene… his unique voice has “haunted me” far too many times in the past when he was in Royal Hunt and he is also a great influence to me. To be honest with you, I wasn’t totally satisfied by the previous Silent Force albums… not that they weren’t good but they didn’t have the magical touch of D.C. That something that would make them great… and now I understand what went wrong in the past.

Silent Force finally released the masterpiece that I was longing for many years now. They did it! They released one of the best heavy prog albums of this year! Yes, D.C Cooper is back with vengeance and leaves no prisoners this time. Now I know that Cooper’s voice is not made for traditional heavy/power metal music… that was the wrong thing of the previous albums, according to my opinion of course. I would characterize “Walk The Earth” as the album that Royal Hunt should have released if D.C. Cooper had never left the band. This album is equal to the monumental heavy prog metal albums that Cooper has released with the Danish band. If you wanna know how this album sounds like, imagine Royal Hunt’s “Paradox” and “Moving Target” mixed along with the heavy/power elements of Silent Force’s previous albums. This album totally smokes…

The production is top notch and was made by the great Dennis Ward along with the band. The songs are indeed excellent and honestly when I play this record I do not skip a single song… listening to it till it ends and then again from the start. The homonymous song “Walk The Earth” is a fantastic heavy prog song and for sure this along with my other beloved dark heavy tune “Goodbye My Ghost” can be the hit songs of the band. “Point Of No Return” is a great powerful song… as if it came out of “Moving Target”. “In From the Dark” is a very beautiful song with a very good chorus. “Save Me From Myself” is a very beautifully sad ballad… Cooper’s voice will make your soul bend. “My Independence Day” is a fantastic heavy mid-tempo tune with a very good chorus that it seems that has “escaped” from “Moving Target” again… but it has some neoclassical influences on the guitars as well. “Blind Leading The Blind” is a brilliant prog metal song… that also “travelled me” to the golden era where Cooper was ruling along with Royal Hunt… as the wonderful “Picture of A Shadow” did.

“Walk The Earth” is a well-produced, well-orchestrated album… no doubt about it. D.C. Cooper has delivered some excellent vocal lines this time and the whole result is simply excellent! The special edition of the album (the one that I bought) has a bonus video track of the song “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” that was recorded live at the ProPower Festival on November 2002 in Atlanta/USA. The Japanese bonus track is the acoustic version of “Saints & Sinners”. Anyway you must get this album because you will totally love it. Do not miss it… it will be a loss indeed.

by Thanos Aggelakis 8,5/10