Colombia’s Cries of Redemption released “Abstract” on January 5th. Founded by songwriter and guitarist Ed Silva in Savannah, GA, in 2007, the project fuses Modern Rock and NuMetal with Classic Trance, Cinematic Trap, and Romanian Deep House. Silva writes 100% of the lyrics, melodies, and guitar riffs, utilizing professional session artists Denisse Ferrara and Maria Duque on female vocals, while handling male vocals himself with Audimee Vocal Modeling. The project’s documented history on ReverbNation dates back to 2006, predating the current trend of instant content. Silva uses the full iZotope and Waves suites within FL Studio, embracing emerging technologies while taking pride in creating his own music and sound.
This album overall is very surprising, which is refreshing as someone who plays music and writes about it professionally. This album actually earns the usage of the frankly overused term “genre-bending.” Its blending of genres is more like a smooth and well-executed gradient, not just throwing some disconnected elements in a blender. As we break it down further, it will become apparent just how genius this album is.
The album starts with “The Return” ; it’s the track that’s easiest to pin down to one genre with the gorgeous soaring (and occasionally brutal) vocals from Denisse Ferrara alongside a modern metal arrangement. But then Ed Silva starts to sprinkle in some of those trap and deep house rhythmic devices to kind of initiate the transition into more experimental territories. All of it is done tastefully to serve the song, not experimentation for the sake of it.
“An Eerie Feeling” leans further into the cinematic sound, but again, we see the prioritization of the narrative of the song over experimentation, with only a handful of interesting ear candy textures and trap-like rapid hi-hats to keep the rhythm interesting. It’s reminiscent of Polyphia’s drumming style. But it’s different in every other way, pretty much.
“No More Google Translate” is where things get really interesting and not just thematically. The harmony takes a really adventurous shift. A shift into darker territory. There are positively nasty riffs in this one. They exist to support the narrative of this song. In this song, Ed Silva addresses the elephant in the room of our digital age, with our human communication being diluted with technology. Even using direct texting is lessening the effectiveness of our communication and how much we feel connected to one another. Physically being in the same space is the only proper way of communication. The darkness and power of the riffs in the song drive that point home sonically.
“Cloud 9” marks the album’s transition into instrumental territory. It doesn’t feel like it lost anything as the lead guitar replaces the vocals; it still manages to sing. Though this approach to the song-craft is naturally more “Abstract” as the title track quite plainly puts it. It leaves more room for interpretation and has priorities melody to tell a story and doesn’t try to outshine the melodic content with flash over substance like so many instrumental tracks in the genre that pander to musicians.
The final two instrumental tracks are more ambient in their approaches with dreamy harmony and long melodic lines in “Awakening” and “Wherever You Are” especially being surprisngly heavy. They complete each other with hints of melodic motifs being shared across the songs; it feels like a complete narrative arc.
With “Cries of Redemption” Ed Silva has officially landed in the saturated scene of modern rock, wielding a unique voice of his own and stellar execution. I think there is a lot of potential and great success in store for him because he is prioritizing artistic integrity over trend-chasing in a climate where it’s extremely tempting to do so. I thoroughly enjoyed this release, and anyone who enjoys heavier music will do as well.
