In Silent Agony Villainous Review

In Silent Agony “Villainous” EP Review

By Daniel C. Morrison

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A one man army with a mission of metal, that’s what Brandon “Eski” Ortiz is! To meet the guy in person you’d feel like you just made a friend for life. To meet his music in person, you’d feel your teeth bleed.

In Silent Agony is no stranger to classic metal with enough production value and attitude to feel fresh. This is especially amazing since Brandon writes, records, plays all instruments, does all lyrics, mixes and produces each song by himself. Villainous sends you through 5 songs that speak to you in metal metaphors with lyrics that are smart, if you can understand them. Luckily, he has lyric videos of some of these which you can see right here on the page. this is the first of a trilogy of EPs that set a progressive mood which gets better as the series unfolds. The lyric video for Treacherous is already out and is by far my favorite to date even though it's not on this.

LETS DIG IN!

The first and also title track, Villainous, pulls me into an eerie, surreal environment loaded with potential. I immediately say to myself, “This is badass!” Throwing whispers with gritty vocals is a cool touch and although the sound of his metal voice is a slight turn off for me it sets up this EP nicely!

Sightless goes into head throttling action and I’m really loving the music. The uniqueness of Brandon’s voice comes to the forefront and I’m starting to be pulled out of the mood.

A Dark Embrace followed by Plaguerism continues this awesome music but also the same type of vocals. Diminishing Returns complete this EP in similar style.

On one end of the shovel – this music is pretty badass! Each song has variety, crunchy riffs, mood setting structure and is instantly like-able. This is metal but many people who aren’t into that blazing fast, hard-to-make-sense-of metal won’t be turned down here. This is easily accessible to more heavy rock. Its deep, slows the pace now and then and gives you a satisfied feeling, all while easily allowing you to keep up. The production value is pretty top notch too for a one man army!

On the other end of the shovel – as much as the music hits me in all the good spots, the vocals turn me away sooner than later. I appreciate the uniqueness and to stand out from the crowd, it works. The whispers are a nice touch but the main metal vocal does something to my ears that makes me want to leave. This may not be a bad thing since this is metal and the vocal style matches the angst in the soul of each song. The smart lyrics, although tough to get at first, are a fit with this vocal style. It’s just the general sound that pushes me away. Fortunately, the more I listen to it the more the music grabs me and since it's so good I can let that slide. A person will just kind of want to do that for this to have staying power.

How deep can I dig this?

With badass music and excellent production value combined with a vocal style that pulls me out of the brilliance of the music this shovel digs 3.5 out of 6 feet deep.