From their EPK, “WEEPING SILENCE is back with their first new studio album since 2015´s “Opus IV Oblivion”, and it was worth the wait for sure. “Isles of Lore” is the bands fifth album release, and it is inspired by the timeless allure of Maltese folklore characters, creatures and legends. Musically it´s everything you can wish for in a progressive metal album. It´s dark, raw, beautiful and epic and will keep you on your toes from the beginning to the end. Since 2018, they have merged its earlier atmospheric Gothic Doom roots with the more eclectic, dynamic and conceptual approach that characterizes the current musical direction. For the past four years the band has been working on a body of work that revolves around Maltese mythical characters that have recently been making their way back into popular culture.” The album has nine songs.

“The Watcher on the Walls” is first. Out of the gates, the basic blueprint that the band lays at your feel is fairly different than a lot of Progressive music out there. The vocals are raw, and guttural, but the music moves, is dynamic and has feeling, especially from the clean vocal parts. “Serpentine” has some complex guitars and keys in the beginning. You can still hear some of the doomy elements of their past every now and again, but the Progressive elements are sharper. “The Collector” is a bass and keyboard led song again with tones of dread in the background, but melody soars high in the chorus.

“The Beast and the Harrow” is a ten-minute opus. The pace is slow and the notes heavy at first, while the vocals vary from gutturals to cleans. At the half-way mark, it slows even further, and a lot of the sound drops, while the listener’s imagination is peaked. Lead guitars then lament with vocals in a serenade, and the opening sound returns with renewed vigor. “Interlude” is just that…a short two-minute pause connecting the first half of the album with the second. “Engulfer” has a darker edge, and although the slow pace falls within the realm of Doom, there are other Progressive elements. “Where Giants Roamed” begins with clean, tender tones that are also solemn, and the sound continues when the riff hits. There are also harsh vocals, but of the two styles, I prefer the cleans in this song. “A Silent Curse” is smoother at times, and rough at others, but I like the main melody. If they could let it ride out more, the song would be better.

The 16-minute “The Legend of Matteo Falzon” closes the album. The opening sequence is cold, and slow, with a simple riff and old school keyboards. The song flounders for a while for me, never quite going anywhere. A little more sonority is added after the half-way mark, but there is no excitement. Overall, for a band that says they use to specialize in Gothic Doom before shifting to “dynamic and conceptual” music, the Doomy elements still hold the band down and back. I like Doom Metal, so that is not the issue. Oddly, dynamism was one thing that was sorely lacking on the album. The riffs were too simple, and the band failed to excite me at all.