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ARTIST: Cullooden
ALBUM: Silent Scream
LABEL: Dead End Exit Records
SERIAL: DEERCD003
YEAR: 2014
SPONSOR: Connecting Music Portal

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

LINEUP: Fredrik Joakimsson - vocals, guitars * Jonas Ekestubbe - lead guitar * and Michael Sodergren - bass

Additional Musicans: Daniel Bejbom - drums * David Kastlund - keyboards

TRACK LISTING: 01 Heaven Feels So Hollow * 02 Drowning In Silence * 03 Endless Tears * 04 Embrace Your Destiny * 05 Our Only Desire * 06 The Progress * 07 Take Hold Of Your Fear * 08 An Interesting Fact * 09 Welcome To Wonderland * 10 Star Of The Night

RATING:

WEBLINKS: www.cullooden.com

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Background
This is the futuristic Swedish metal band with an Irish sounding name. And for a band that been around for a little while, 'Silent Scream' is in fact their first record. I stumbled across this band when working on the Pretty Wild review a few weeks back, because they are signed to the same label: Dead End Exit Records, and I am privy to their catalogue for review purposes. Reading elsewhere, Cullooden have been compared to other Scandi prog metal merchants such as Norway's Circus Maximus, Sweden's Seveth Wonder and Denmark's Anubis Gate. The album occasionally drops into melodic hard rock territory, and when it does, a band like Swedish compatriots Degreed swings into gear. For three guys, they make a hell of a lot of noise! It's very technical, but also appealing from a hard rock perspective too.

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The Songs
Listening to the material here, I found it all very compelling. Whether played under a set of head-phones, or played through my quality Kurzweil monitors, the songs are simply enjoyable through whatever audio medium. The song-titles seemingly come from the Sigmund Freud class of Pyschology 101, but then again, don't most prog metal albums these days? 'Drowning Silence', 'Endless Tears', 'Take Hold Of Your Fear' and 'Embrace Your Destiny' all give you an indication as to prog metal and psychosis meet in the middle. Jonas Ekestubbe provides some thick riffed playing and scorching solos. There's a fair bit of orchestration too, so most of this won't come as a surprise to prog metal enthusisasts. There are many highlights, but I really enjoyed 'Endless Tears', 'Our Only Desire' and the closer 'Star Of The Night', which is very melodic, as is most of the album to be fair.

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In Summary
'Silent Scream' must surely rank as one of the best rookie albums of 2014, and what's more astounding, that this album has so much traction for something that was released back in the first week of January 2014. Yes, I've had it for a wee while, and it still sounds great 5 monhts later! The production is exceptional, the arrangements and musicianship top quality. In singer Fredrik Joakimsson, they have a bloke with a great set of pipes. He could well be challenging genre greats like Michael Eriksen, Nils Rue and Tommy Karevik very soon. For those of you are into any of bands listed above, Culloodeen are in the centre-ground comparison wise. There's very little left to be said, other than to say 'totally recommended'!

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