Along with As Sahar and a few others, Silent Sorrow was one of Singapore's first death metal bands. They recorded only one two-song demo before splitting up. Having only one two-song demo to your name may sound like a bad thing, but in this case, they're just like Eructation. Their output may have been incredibly small, but the quality of their music is superb.
The first track begins with a dark ambient intro before transitioning into kickass death/thrash. The drums implement a lot of complex cymbal work as well as plenty of blasts, double bass, and fills. The bass is rather prominent in the mix, surprising given that this is a demo. It plods away just behind the guitars and gives the music a much more detailed texture. The vocals sound like a nasty death/thrash metal yell similar to Terminal Death.
Since this was made back in 1990, the guitars are of the death/thrash variety. The guitar tone isn't quite as low as it is in modern death metal and they play riffs that are still thrash metal in nature. What I really found strange was that the rhythmic riffs and some of the melodic riffs sounded similar to what Swedish death metal bands were playing at the time. This is strange because back in this time, Singapore was just getting its first taste of death metal and these guys were already copying the bands from Sweden. Of course, my favorite parts are the solos. They squeal and shred with as much skill and vigor as the best bands from America. They even play a soulful mid-paced solo at the end of the first song and throw in some ominous clean guitars at the end of the last song.
This demo was truly ahead of its time. If they had stayed together a bit longer, they would have really made a name for themselves and would have had a major impact on the Singaporean death metal scene. This is seriously the best one-demo wonder I've heard since Eructation.
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