Rez

Item: Silence Screams
Author: DMZ

Silence Screams

(1988)

Reviewed by DMZ

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Label Grrr RecordsAdonai Metal Rock #3July 1989

blues rock hard rock heartland rock heavy metal

Translated from the original French

After a recording silence of almost three years, REZ takes the floor again to talk about silence, about a silence that yells... because we have had enough! A sleeve that already says plenty...! The silence of the heart, numbed, in a world of masks. Between the wolves and sharks of the business, the soulless clowns of show-biz, the nutjobs of cut-price Christianity, the charlatans of the drugs-and-destruction scene,... who all seem to be joining hands... The cry that is silenced in bitterness, in despair, because there is no answer... no answer from these fallen leaders, these "models-to-follow", who all, one day or another, come a cropper... lamentably. If REZ tackles themes as heavy as these, it is because they know what they are talking about. Their daily life is not luxury hotels and big cars, it is the rough end (no?, yes! yes!) of Chicago, where, part of a "Jesus People" community, they are in contact with the castoffs of this society. Those who have let everything go, who have dropped all the masks, and who find themselves on the street, on drugs, alcoholics,... Like the Restos du Coeur (but they started a very long time ago!!), the community offers these homeless people a meal (250 to 300 a day) and a roof for the night in emergencies (all of it written on the sleeve!!). And it would even appear that in its early days the band REZ was launched (financially) by this community, and that since then the profits recovered from records, concerts and videos are reinvested in this social action. But rest assured, they are not there to make us shed a tear and a few pennies "for the poor". Their concerts are something else, you have a blast...!!

"But, dear DMZ, is this really a record review?"

Er, yes...!! That was just a small digression about this side of the band, which is hard to get around... Musically, the band stays in the line of "good old seventies hard", synths keeping themselves discreet, the big properly heavy riffs taking over again... Note the presence of a new bassist: Roy Montroy - the first movement in the troupe in 10-15 years (?) of existence - who replaces Jim Denton (provisionally?), who has withdrawn to follow biblical training. But the little newcomer fills the place very respectably. Well-worked sounds, variety in the playing, movement,... And on top of that he writes (the music for 6 songs out of 10, including the "very-big-hit": "Silence Screams"). In short, REZ: a band impossible to classify on the White Metal scene, but which holds a place of choice that one might call the "protest song", and not only for the pleasure of doing things differently, but because it is needed, to keep one's feet on the ground, just in case...