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It's not often these days we find a band in the Melodic Death Metal bracket who stick to the conventions of the genre's forefathers; there are no screamo pretensions on Dreamshade's debut What Silence Hides, but rather just unabashed worship of the bands that gave birth to the style. What we have here is a flashy, uber-technical, teeth-meltingly melodic ride through early In Flames, Children of Bodom, and to a lesser extent, Dark Tranquillity. Mixed at Studio Fredman and mastered by George Marino in New York, What Silence Hides has a million-dollar sound, with performances to match.

Not a moment passes without emotional guitar riffs, flying harmonies, or dreamy synthesizers combining to elicit deep despair out of the listener (which is odd, considering how melodic some of this material is). The band are in control of their sound in a way that alludes many first timers, and the songs here range from enjoyable ("As Serenity Falls", "Only Memories Remain") to damn right excellent ("Wide Awake", "What Silence Hides"). Vocal-wise, we're talking rasped Anders Friden imitation, but this is the least important ingredient; the guitar/keyboard interplay is what draws you in, managing to be progressive, aggressive and moving simultaneously.

Technical Melodic Death fans are going to enjoy this regardless, but those interested in something involving and expressive will find much to love in this worthy debut.