I thought this album would never come. Naevus announced on their website that Silent Life was to be released already in the fall of 2006. But of course it was delayed. Not only one month, or two, but eight! And during that time my expectations maximized since Naevus can be found among my all-time favorite bands and since their last album Perfection is a Process is as close to a perfect 10 as an album can be. And I hate to say that Silent Life does not live up to those expectations. It’s still very good, very unique and very personal. The lyrics have already become classics and the whole production is very professional. But I'm missing something, I can't exactly say what. Maybe it's Greg Ferrari’s electric guitars that take up too much space. Lloyds' acoustic playing and the accordion are barely heard behind the solid walls of distorted riffs. The "folk" in Naevus' neofolk is almost gone now. I would lie if I said that I despise post-punk; I do not. I like it quite a lot actually, but the biggest charm with Naevus has been their uniqe way of mixing equal parts neofolk with post-punk. Now I would say it’s 30-70%. And the songs are too few and too long. They could have cut almost every track down with at least one minute, leaving place for more songs. The music is usually very energic and some softer songs would have been nice.

But hey, it's still a great album, as I said earlier. Great musicians all the way. Besides those I already have mentioned we have John Murphy behind the drums, Joanne Owen on bass, David E. Williams on keyboard, old lady Rose McDowall does some backing vocals and Matt Howden gives us his probably most twisted violin playing in a very long time, especially in track 3, "Bobby Shafto". None of the songs are bad, some are just a little bit less interesting. "Castles in Spain" does not contribute much. And the keyboards near the end are so annoying I just want to skip it. But, for an example "Hasty Bastard" will stay with me for many months. A simple, childish melody with acoustic and electric guitars almost dueling each other, accompanied by very Lloyd James-ish lyrics makes it into an instant Naevus classic.

I know I sounded negative at the beginning of the review. It was not my intention. It is a good album, it is! It just didn’t fill all my expectations. Being a neofolk band or a post-punk band, Naevus will always be very special, and they still are one of the best bands around.

CME