A Swedish outfit that throws just about everything into a peppy industrial gothwave sound (even that description sounds crowded!), Then Comes Silence delivers another solid set. After ten years and six albums, it might make sense for TCS to pare down to essentials. Nope.

Then Comes Silence Hunger (Metropolis)

And so the band wanders into doomy territory and occasionally adopts NIN-style metal guitar sound even while it hews to a late-80s Cure ideal. I know, the road of excess and all that, but an excess of excess can pay off. It sure does here.

Even as the ideas swirl, the songs themselves remain tight. The beat is incessant, the guitars contain that haunting hollow ring and then TCS takes flight. Sisters of Mercy are another obvious reference point, though the vocals owe a lot more to post-punk shouting.

There you have it. Then Comes Silence hasn't stopped evolving. My guess is that this album is just another step along the journey. Riding a wayback sound into the future, these guys don't know how to quit. I hope they never do.

Jon Worley