Silvernite
So it Began

Silvernite can apparently be several different things based on a web search I did before starting this text. It can be clumping kittie litter, it can be a Collie dog, there were references to jewelry and more. It is a Greek-Finnish band as well and it is them, and not the kittie litter, that I review today. They are telling a story with this debut EP that is act one in their space opera, it is a rather preposterous story about the remainder of mankind fleeing in a spaceship after losing a war with an invading alien species in 2022. They will then reside in a fortress on Venus. This is a very difficult story to believe in any way as there isn’t any kind of likelihood to it, and even if we are talking pure fantasy it has to be some believability as it will otherwise just be silly.

If we look at this story it is certainly possible that an alien species will invade and if that were to happen, we would lose as we would not have credible defence against a warring civilisation that can travel through interstellar space. That we in 2022 should have built a spacecraft capable of transporting not only a large number of people but also all the food and water, oxygen and other necessities to survive a journey like that, probably a journey for a few months with the technology of today considering that the planets will be close in 2022. The ship should also contain the materials to construct a fortress, even if the ship would be recycled into that they would need a good amount more. Venus is a very inhospitable environment with surface temperatures averaging over 460° and can reach 500° C. On top of that the pressure is about 92 times the one on Earth, it is like 900 meters below the surface in the oceans. So, the ship needs to carry something to build a protective dome over the fortress and atmospheric processors to improve conditions to be able to cultivate food as they would otherwise need lots and lots of food on the ship. Then there is water, and etc.

Needless to say, this story distracts me from the album, that isn’t captivating enough not to try and figure out what would make such a proposition possible. The ship would probably have needed to be in construction since decades to launch in 2022, if construction is not yet started it isn’t possible. On the music, it is harking back to eighties style synthwave, AOR, very retro. The opening intro that has me thinking about Blade Runner (some reviewer said Star Trek or Star Wars, which is ridiculous as those have grand symphonic soundtracks not synthetic) and the first track Sweet Mary is a really good track, the opening is quite great actually. The rest of the EP does not live up to what is promised with these tracks, it is fairly good too, the story feels more thought-provoking than the music itself that is fairly generic.

They might want to go to Venus, thing is though that we might find ourselves on something like that soon (not 2022 though) as the conditions on Venus, that is believed to have been very similar to Earth with running water and hospitable climate, was caused by a runaway greenhouse effect. And Venus is just slightly smaller than Earth, remove the surface water and the mass and size is probably more or less identical. But in the end, I think that Silvernite’s debut is a pretty EP, fans of the eighties style synthwave should check it out. I will keep the opening pair of tracks to listen to every now and then.

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