Choosing your band name as a tribute to an author of children’s books - Shel Silverstein - is not the most common way of choosing a name for a hardcore band. Silverstein come from Canada, probably not known for its huge amount of hardcore bands, although they did provide you with one of the greatest bands of the scene: Grade (R.I.P.). The band was started as a side project to play other music besides their current bands. They attempted (and partly achieved their goal) to break the musical boundaries of hardcore, emo and punk.

Akin to the likes of Poison The Well, Thursday and Grade they alternate screamo-like singing with catchy and emotional moments, every now and then. Silverstein already released two EP`s, Summer`s Stellar Gaze (2000) and a second EP that got them the record deal with Victory Records, called When The Shadows Beam. I can hear you think, so far so good. Well they seem to have all the right ingredients to make a true masterpiece, but things are slightly different.

Silverstein is a great band, but they imitate their colleagues too much. Every scream of Shane, the band’s vocalist, sounds like Jeffrey from Poison The Well, his melodic moments just sound too much like Geoff’s from Thursday and if I want I can go on and on. Every song on this album sounds like something I’ve already heard before. There’s nothing wrong with a tribute to colleague bands, but Silverstein go way to far with their cheap trick. The most memorable song on this album is probably "When Broken Is Easily Fixed", but that’s probably because Kyle Bishop (Grade) provided some guest vocals. Hey, did I mention Grade being a huge influence of Silverstein (ok sorry, I’ll stop naming them copycats).

I’ll cut the crap. Does this make Silverstein a terrible band? Yes and no. Yes if they continue with this illegal copying of other people’s sound and no if they try to do the things on their own.