"What is immediately striking about Violent Silence's 'Kinetic', and fairly unique for music in this genre, is the total absence of guitars. Not only are there no guitars whatsoever on the album, the Swedes have two keyboard players alongside the usual bass, drums and, of course, vocals. What is perhaps
more astonishing is that a couple of minutes into the album and the guitar lack is not given a second thought as 'Kinetic' draws you in with its alluring musical charms and absorbingly progressive finesse. Ranging from the down tempo tranquillity of the entrancing 'Sky Burial' to the frantically engaging sounds of the more up tempo 'Torrential Rains', the keyboards of Hannes Ljunghall and Björn Westén are the prominent musical force during particular passages, thoughform only a constituent part of the whole. The bass has a fully resonant sound which perhaps partly compensates for the guitar absence and adds depth to each of the songs, while Johan Hedman's drumming impresses with his progressive
beats providing a solid backbone to the incessantly changing time signatures. Bruno Edling's vocals instill a degree of 'normality' into the songs with his fairly traditional prog-rock singing and he generally has an appealingly versatile voice that fits both the euphonic and more cacophonic music. 'Kinetic' is also testament to the fact that a band doesn't need to, and shouldn't always, rely on distorted guitar
to be 'heavy' as Violent Silence achieve genuine 'heaviness' through the contrasting polarity of mellow/heavy (and everything in between) throughout the album. Loaded with polyrhythmic song structures and melodically original compositions, the talented Swedes have managed to record a genuinely progressive album. 'Kinetic' is highly recommended for anyone wishing to hear something different in the progressive genre that is all too often self-imitable and only progressive in a generic sense. 'Kinetic' will not be to everyone's taste, but is refreshingly original and surprisingly accessible. In short, a work of indisputable musical brilliance."
Rating: 9/10
METAL DISCOVERY

"Because of the bands uniqueness in sound some things on the album might take a while to sink in. But I plead to anyone reading this to give this great band a thorough listen. Whether or not you prefer 70´s prog, prog metal or art rock. I promise you that you will not be disappointed. In a perfect world this would sell by the bucketload because to me this is nothing short of a future classic. Needless to say this is one highly recommended piece of music."
Rating: 5 of 5
PROGARCHIVES

"Unholy testicle Tuesday! What a damn nice surprice this is! Violent Silence is a “different” Swedish 5-piece for sure, a band playing a very intriguing and quite original kind of progressive rock that makes the hair on my back curl in amazement! These guys are cooking up something special, doing stuff a different way and boldly going where few others have gone before them.
5 guys but no guitars, wow…, now that’s weird isn’t it? I wasn’t too eager to put on this album after reading the promo sheet following this cd. I’m so happy I did, and I’m so happy I heard them over and over and over again, because this has grown into one of the best prog-rock albums I’ve heard in quite some time! So, no guitars, what can possibly be so good about this then? Well, there’s a vocalist that’s quite out of the ordinary. He catches your attention immediately with a very soothing yet dynamic voice. There are two keyboardists that perform together, but one with a different approach than the other. Also there are incredible stuff going on in the rhythm section, a drummer and bassist that know what they’re doing for sure.
The complexity of their music can often be compared to King Crimson, but of course, focused on keys instead of guitars. Other than that I guess you can say that when talking about melodies and extended use of keyboards, bands like Greenslade, Camel and Genesis comes to mind. The sound and production on “Kinetic” is not of the vintage type, but rather more contemporary with a modern touch.
So if you’re into complex prog rock and dig wild keyboard playing (no…nothing like you hear in modern power metal…), a solid and tight rhythm section and with a soulful and moody vocalist with a very unique style – Violent Silence must be your cup of tea!
An exceptionally good album by a band not easy comparable to others and with 8 strong tracks (especially the 18 min long opus “Quiet Stalker”) offering something new and fresh to the progressive rock genre of today. Thank you very much, I’ll keep this one close with me!"
Rating: 9/10
IMHOTEP

"Kinetic, "Torrential Rains" and "Quiet Stalker" deserve a very special mention, especially "Quiet Stalker": this is the longest and most interesting song, where the lack of guitar lines is balanced with the piano and synths making a breathtaking duet throughout the track. Bruno Edling sings so well the wonderful melodic lines and Johan Hedman is not really a scholastic drummer.

Well, "Kinetic" is a recommended album in my opinion, because of its highly inspired melodic lines, gifted with an overall complexity but absolutely enjoyable by a large number of progressive fans. Together with the Magic Pie album, it's definitly the best Progress records album of 2005 and all my admiration just goes to this swedish label, whose policy to put the quality before the quantity is rewarding its job."
Rating: 80/100
TALES OF WONDER

"Quiet Stalker" spreads galant over 18 minutes, offers the typical scandinavian flair of melancholy and unfolds almost catchy melodies. How long have they worked on this song? How many musical ideas must have been tried out? For how long have they penned the harmonic structures? In this epic everything seems clear-cut and understandable. Nevertheless the piece is filled with great complexity in both dissonance and structure. One must listen to "Quit" stalker" a couple of times before it unfoldes, but then it sticks to you and you want to hear it again and again. Hats off!
”Kinetic” is a dream come true. Wonderful music, extremely well written and not too heavy. Very melodic but, at the same time abstract and lyric. Fans of early symphonic rock music will most certain love "Kinetic".
PROGRESSIVE NEWSLETTER

"Hats off, gentlemen!!!"
Rating: 8,5/10
PROG AREA

"The disc opens with the dreamy almost ambient sounding, “Morning Star” which features gentle keyboard textures perfectly matching the hushed vocal delivery of Bruno Edling. This sets up the title track which begins with an almost techno style intro before you become aquianted with the frantic and busy drum work of Johan Hedman. I must say Hedman does a fantastic job all over this disc, he is one of the busiest drummers around and the band along with co-producer Carl Vikman managed to get a nice warm, brown sound on his drums. It might have been a more logical choice for the band had they decided to pursue a more synthetic sound, percussion wise to match the duo keyboard attack of Hannes Ljunghall and Bjorn Westen, but it probably would have left the music sounding cold, so in essence Hedman’s acoustic drums and busy playing creates a perfect synergy. In fact for a band to employ 2 keyboardists, the sound throughout Kinetic has a surprisingly analogue feel. I was expecting the sound to be a lot colder as I mentioned, but both Westen and Ljunghall opt for a warmer feel, keeping solo’s on the relative backburner, instead focusing more on creating their rich soundscapes and aural tapestries, as if to emphasize pure emotion over technicality, not to say any of these musicians are anything less than extremely skilled. I was impressed at the different textures they were able to generate such as the marimba styled intro on “Torrential Rains”, actually these sounds pop up in a few other songs as well. Hedman’s drums along with Phillip Bastin’s thick bass lines, drive the rhythm along underneath a short Tony Banks like solo halfway through.

The fourth track “Nightlights” is a short instrumental leading the way into my personal favorite off Kinetic, the absolutely gorgeous “Sky Burial”, which lyrically seems to deal with a son’s finally coming to terms with the death of his Father. The song is beautifully executed on all fronts, from Edling’s passionate vocal delivery to once again some fantastic, emotionally moving keyboard passages. Kinetic basically closes with an epic 18 minute track called “Quiet Stalker”, a song which finds the band pulling out all the stops musically and features a few long, tasty keyboard solos which not only highlights Westin and Ljunghall’s stunning technique, but also proves just how cohesive the whole band actually is.

I would definitely recommend this disc to SOT listeners and if Kinetic doesn’t yield the band some major attention and give them a major push to the forefront of progressive music, then I would be very surprised, not to mention disappointed."
Score: **** (of 5)
SEA OF TRANQUILITY

"Simply one of the best albums this year, all categories!, and that taking the release of the double album of SOAD in. Enjoy the different nuances for each time you listen to it. Keeps building.
I cant quite see that I will ever grow tired of it...ever."
Score: *****
GUEST COMMENT AT SEA OF TRANQUILITY

"Good progressive rock without lead guitar is by no means an easy accomplishment, but the Swedish guys of Violent Silence have without any doubt succeeded in this matter. The band was founded by drummer Johan Hedman and keyboard player Hannes Ljunghall back in 1999, in 2003 they released their debut album on the Record Heaven label. The response was not that overwhelming, but this could change with the album ‘Kinetic’. This release has plenty of complex arrangements, varied with melodic parts, the technical abilities of the musicians is obvious, especially the drummer has made an extraordinary delivery, in this sense you could compare it with their fellowmen of Anglagard.

The electronic and ambient sounding Morning Star will perhaps give you a wrong impression, although the first reference point to UK can already be found in this track. But the first notes of the title track show immediately the complexity and the aggressive play, the link to King Crimson can be easily made, without guitars naturally. From a vocal point of view as well as in the symphonic parts the seventies touch of super group UK is very present. But keyboards have the biggest contribution, but without a too strong emphasis on the solos. The strength of their music lies mainly in the complexity of the arrangements, the virtuosity of the drummer is also one of the key factors. ‘Sky Burial’ seems to be a point of rest on the album, an atmospheric spacey track with excellent synthesizers, both keyboard players are creating an entire unique sound, that has not many in common with neo prog. The short up-tempo ‘Subzero’ sounds very melodic and could have reached the charts in the seventies. The longest track ‘Quiet Stalker’ contains almost everything atmospheric art rock could offer nowadays, a perfect mix between melody and complexity. The singer has a very pleasant voice, comparable with his fellow singers of Progress Records (Liquid Scarlet, Magic Pie, Brother Ape).

In a nutshell, this is once again a very surprising and high standard release from Sweden, we are getting used to it little by little. Surely recommended for everybody who is not too much into guitars. Progressive rock with balls!"
Rating: 9/10
PROG-NOSE

"...one of the most original and most astonishing
albums of the quarter and thus a group moreover to follow."
HARMONIE

"Again they made a strong keyboard orientated album. The album has a fine mix of uptempo tunes and slow ballad like tracks and most of all -it does not include any weak songs. Nothing seemed to be wrong on this second release. I did find it hard to label their music but their record company compared their music to bands such as Genesis, UK, Greenslade and late King Crimson. Sure we can hear certain traces of those mentioned bands. But it still make it difficult to label them."
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
BACKGROUND MAGAZINE



"The absolute highlight is however the long track Quiet Stalker, very bombastic, yet dynamic and with a very long instrumental mid section, which reflects the definite listening pleasure. Wow! Very pleasing. Result: Violent Silence is another highlight from the Progress Records label, which apart from it's rather neoproggish releases presents, with Magic Pie, Brother Ape and now Violent Silence, completely new ways to relate to the past. Kinetic offers progressive rock, of the somewhat more special kind, not too complex however, and nevertheless in keinster way mainstreaming. Great album, very talented musicians and one of the highlights 2005."
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)
PROGGIES


"Really, this is definitely among the best prog moments of the year."
CONCLUSION: 8 out of 10
DPRP

"I - after after repeated listenings - rate "Kinetic"as a kanditate for my personal Top 10 of 2005. Drummer Hedman is the secret star of the album. The melody-basic instruments are naturally the two keyboards, which develop far surfaces and unloading sound mountains, in addition, break out into fast icorporated soloing. Frequenltly marimba/vibraphone-like keyboard playing is one of the dominating characteristics resulting in a self determined and strange, but uncommonly fascinating sound structure. Noticeable is that there is no guitar here, but that is nothing negative. The very suitable vocals of Edling is the icing of the cake. "Kinetic" surely carries inspirations from bandssuch as UK or ELP, but Violent Silence create their completely own both moderna and timeless sound."
Rating: 12/15
BABYBLAUE SEITEN

"Track 5: “Sky burial” shows just how versatile these guys are!! A lingering tune with keys abound...the whole vocal arrangement are brilliant...its actually beautiful!!! This band really shows how keyboards can rule the overall song. Marimba,timber,synths...a beautiful sounding unit...this is supreme progmusic!!!
PROGPLANET