Starting in 2007, Belfast musician Tom Gribben (formerly of The October Connection and Catalyst) has been writing under the name Sick with Silence for eight years. In those eight years he’s released five EPs (The Modern Art of Making Enemies, Ctrl, The Gold, The Shadow and 3) and an album (Ctrl,Alt,Delete), a feat that many full bands find hard to achieve, never mind just one guy.
The music of Sick with Silence demands you to listen. Storming guitars and pounding rhythms are complemented with spellbinding electronics; gelled together by lyrics of love, madness, fury and sickness. The vocals will take you from the verge of tears to screams of fury from one moment to the next.
Released in April of this year, 3 is a four track EP with edge. Featuring influences from Industrial Rock and Alternative Metal all the way to Drum ‘n’ Bass and Electronica, Sick with Silence take you on an unexpected journey through musical genres that can’t exactly be pinned down.

Opener Emergence starts things off with a bang – the sheer energy and grunginess gets right into your bones and it just gets better with every listen. Falling somewhere between the rock and alternative categories, there’s a roughness to this track that gives it an unexpected attitude.

Next up …But This In Marble shows a completely different side to Sick with Silence, kicking off with a quieter more melodic intro, the drums kick in and Gribben’s soft vocals are soon juxtaposed with his intense screams. This is my favourite track on the EP as it harks back to the more melodic rock and alternative music I listened back in the day – this is definitely one I can get on board with as its great musicality goes hand in hand with its heartfelt lyrics.

A slightly darker sounding track, Grey Into My View combines thumping, almost syrupy sounding bass with unnerving guitar and thrashing drums to give us something completely different again. When I see the SWS logo, this is exactly the kind of music I imagine them playing, and for being entirely recorded by just one guy, the production is high and this genuinely sounds like it’s created by a full band.

Bringing the EP to a close, Just Watch Me… picks up the pace again with distorted vocals, gritty guitar and a sleazy rock ‘n’ roll sound. The one thing you’ll notice throughout 3 is that although musically diverse, there is definitely a cohesion which ties the whole EP together. I find it a bit hard to hear the lyrics over the instruments in a few of these tracks, but aside from that, the overall package sounds pretty damn good.

After eight years of making music, it’s clear that Tom Gribben knows exactly what he’s doing with this latest release. 3 is an intriguingly eclectic and interesting powerhouse of an EP, delivered with both panache and heart. With live shows planned for the near future, we can’t wait to see what else Sick with Silence has in store.

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Laura Caldwell

Author: Laura Caldwell

Hi, I'm Laura. I'm 30 years old and have a degree in Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like origami, reading, jazz, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. I've written for The Big List, Culture NI, Chatterbox and The Echo, as well as writing for BBC Across the Line.