No changing winds in Silverstein’s new album

Earlier this February, the band Silverstein released their new album, “This Is How the Wind Shifts.” It’s always interesting when a veteran band releases a new album, because you never quite know what that old dog is going to do.

“This Is How the Wind Shifts” was a bit disappointing despite their promising choice of album artwork (a solitary grazing buffalo). The album is essentially nothing but the same tricks by which Silverstein became famous.

They are still selling the same post-punk, hard-core, angsty song and dance — although Silverstein has aged better than similar bands of the same vein (Hawthorn Heights, for example).

That is not to say the album is bad. “This Is How the Wind Shifts” has plenty of nice moments, and is overall a well-done album.

Track 12, “To Live and to Lose,” shows that the band still has life and vigor in their writing. It’s a great example of Silverstein’s ability to capture the emotion of a moment and it demonstrates the band’s great use of musical swells. But the rest of “This Is How the Wind Shifts” comes across as bland, like when you’ve had pizza too many times in one week.

For example, they use augmented starts for too many songs (e.g. when a song starts with lower volume and middy EQ for effect).

Also, the album is top heavy. Most of the fun songs are at the beginning and it has a lazy finish. I give “This Is How the Wind Shifts” 6-and-a-half stars out of 10 stars. Five of the stars are for being a solid album.

If a new band had released the same record, it would have been a touch impressive. Silverstein, however, has a decade of music behind them.

I give the album another star-and-a-half because the band still shows some life and promise. “This Is How the Wind Shifts” might be the sign Silverstein is on their way out of the music scene, or just experiencing a lull in their career.

They can’t keep laying the same cards down, though. If they want to stay in the game, they have to do something new, or even the most die-hard Silverstein fans will lose interest.