Album Review: silence outlives the earth Signals ERRA’s Continued Evolution

Photo: UNFD/Bryan Kirks

Progressive metalcore quintet ERRA’s newest album “silence outlives the earth” (stylised in all-lowercase, as well as the entire tracklist) encapsulates what makes their sound uniquely their own. Starting with “stelliform”, the track provides the perfect opener for the album with graceful, clean choruses and verses with stunning, harsh vocals.

“further eden” follows afterwards, giving us lyrics about trying to be at peace with yourself in the midst of having to navigate societal and personal disarray in between heavy hooks and a breakdown with an almost electronic-sounding feel.

The track ends with the words “face yourself for once” before taking the listener into the third track called “gore of being”. The band’s dual vocalists sing about the inevitability of falling victim to time before jumping into technically complex guitar riffs and drum fills.

“black cloud” switches the sound up, giving us a lighter, dream-like track with a clean guitar solo and imagery of a person floating in the sky, away from earth, as if trying to escape mortal pain. But the weightlessness doesn’t last forever, instantly jumping into heavy chugs and visceral vocals in the next track “cicada siren”, which speaks on feeling lost in life and being trapped in a vicious cycle.

“echo sonata” features a background guitar riff that is pure, classic prog metal, before bringing us into “lucid threshold”, which is ethereal yet jagged at the same time. It’s almost hopeful, with melancholic lyrics wishing to run away from memories and time into a lucid dream, only to be forced to continue on.

The track ends almost abruptly and is followed by “spiral (of liminal infinity)” which brings its listener a careless and easy-going sound mixed with heavy vocals—light and dark, day and night.

When the opening instrumentals of “i. the many names of god” come in after a brief electronic drum fill, it becomes clear that longing and melancholy have been felt and have been turned into wrath. The lyricism is vengeful, talking about the absence of gods and the wasteland they’ve allowed the world to turn into.

The track, unlike the others, doesn’t fade out. It fully leans into the sound of futuristic, electronic metal and lets the next song, “ii. in the gut of wolf”, begin seamlessly. We’re given a chorus of harsh vocals, and we’re dropped into action between the album’s narrator and an unknown, antagonising force before moving flawlessly between verses and intricate breakdowns. A cinematic chord progression carries through the song, before it ends with a hypnotising set of clean vocals.

The album comes to an end with “iii. twilight in the reflection of dreams”, which finally brings us a truly hopeful, uplifting track in a haze of spiralling instrumentals and vocals. The album closes with the lines “I can feel it’s real / I can feel I’ve healed”, giving us a much-deserved resolution we weren’t sure was going to come.

Whether you’ve been a fan of ERRA for years or have just found them recently, “silence outlives the earth” is a stunning, expansive addition to their discography, perfect for fans of progressive metal.

Listen below:

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