ERRA has been one of the bigger names when it comes to progressive metal laden metalcore over the past fifteen years. By 2016’s Drift the vocal combo of JT Cavey and Jesse Cash became a defining element of the band’s sound following the departure of some of the band’s earlier singers, and they’ve refined and tweaked their blend of heavy and melodic ever since. 2021’s self-titled effort felt like a true evolution of their approach up to that point, and while it was lengthy there were equal amounts of crushingly heavy riffs and airier atmospheric ones. ERRA followed that up with Cure in 2024, which had a similar cadence but didn’t quite reach the same highs despite still being a strong album overall. Now on their seventh album silence outlives the earth the band has kept the momentum going, pivoting towards a sound that’s just as dark and atmospheric even during its softest passages.
At this point in their career ERRA comes across like a well-oiled machine, and while they’ve not simply repeated their songwriting from the past few albums silence outlives the earth does feel like more of an incremental adjustment. Things start off strong, as opener “stelliform" has all the elements that have defined this band over their last few albums. You get huge instrumentation that lets some airier melodies expand over the crushing foundation, and plenty of chugging and noodling in between catchy choruses. There does seem to be a bit more melody woven in right from the get-go, which does switch things up a bit. Silence outlives the earth spends much of its first half moving seamlessly between soaring melodies and heavy, dense instrumentation, with “gore of being” offering one of the most intense breakdowns ERRA has ever written. On the opposite end of the spectrum, tracks like “black cloud” pivot to progressive melodies and even some post hardcore type energy with the occasional metalcore chug finding its way in. The second half opts for an even darker sound, and the three-song suite that finishes the album showcases the band’s ambition. All three flow together seamlessly and give ERRA the chance to incorporate some additional textures into their material. “The many names of god” leans more into djent type grooves, with very Meshuggah sounding riffing, “the gut of the wolf” brings some electronics into the mix, while “twilight in the reflection of dreams” lives up to its name with much dreamier textures. However, as much as I enjoyed the suite and the earlier tracks, the span from “echo sonata” to “spiral (of liminal infinity)” didn’t stand out quite as much and ran together on repeat listens, which does hold the album back slightly.
JT Cavey has been with ERRA for a decade now, and with each successive album you’ve been able to hear how seamlessly he and Jesse Cash trade off. Cavey usually comes in hard and fast with lower growls that have an immense amount of power, and then Cash takes over for mellower verses and choruses that soar over the recording. The vocals may feel a bit overproduced for some, but I found it suits the group’s sound as they try and make everything sound immense and room filling at all times. One area where things HAVE started to fall into too much of a pattern is the verse/chorus structure, as the way the cleans take over becomes a bit too predictable. ERRA does avoid this on the three song-suite, where the aggressive pitches take the spotlight for the first two and then Cash gets the focus on the last one. This type of shake up works well, and I’d be interested to see if they can do more of it in the future.
Silence outlives the earth took a bit longer to click for me compared to some of the band’s past discography, and while it does still have some lulls around the middle of the album the peaks make up for it. Early on some of the heaviest songs have real staying power, and the three song-suite at the end not only has memorable moments but demonstrates ERRA can write arrangements that flow seamlessly together. It doesn’t quite top the self-titled in terms of memorability, but does edge out Cure and showcases that even after seven albums in this band hasn’t gotten complacent. Silence outlives the earth is available from UNFD.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg