American Excess

American Excess is a three track demo that comes to us from a Philadelphia five piece band called Silvertide. This is a band that obviously does not care about the music scene in the US. Someone forgot to tell them that they should be playing nu-metal, grunge, rap, or some sort of shitty hybrid of the aforementioned. Instead, this band reminds me more of some of my favorites of yesteryear such as Guns 'n Roses, Faster Pussycat, and classic Aerosmith (not Get a Grip, Nine Lives, etc…). Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that this demo contains the next Sweet Child of Mine or Walk This Way, but I like this band. The music of Silvertide is energetic, charismatic power chord hard rock. The flashy guitar work of Nick Perri particularly adds a lot of life to the music with his lively solos and shredding throughout. The rhythm section is steady with a strong but not overbearing bass guitar to give the music a nice bite. The vocals of Walt Lafty are very spirited and somehow he reminds me a lot of a little known Swedish hard rock band, Pole Position. His energetic delivery is very well suited for the sleazy, party like vibe you'll get from listening to these guys. The production is actually very good for a demo with all the instruments at just the right level and thankfully the drums are not made to sound like kitchen utensils as is the case with many demos I've heard. If you're hungry for guitar driven power chord hard rock, check this band out. It's nice to hear a fresh approach to a style of music that's been just about dead in the US for the last decade. Hopefully Silvertide can inject some much needed energy into the US hard rock scene. With the power of the internet and some aggressive promotion from the label, the band should be able to draw significant interest. They've already earned an opening slot for Aerosmith during the past year, so we'll have to see what's next for the guys with the release of their debut.