photo courtesy of BJF Media

EP Review of Silveroller: At Dawn

Are you a Zeppelin fan? A Deep Purple fan? A Cream fan? Maybe Jefferson Airplane? Well, have I got a band for you to blast while enjoying your lava lamp and black light posters! Silveroller seems to have stepped straight out of the psychedelic classic rock era, carrying all those influences but still creating a sound all its own, a sound that would have been all over ’60s/’70s album-oriented rock radio.

That’s not to say there aren’t other influences, as well, I could hear Silveroller sharing the stage with bands ranging from the Rolling Stones to the Black Crowes, who themselves were a ’60s/’70s throwback band when they hit it big in the ’90s. Indeed, Silveroller’s At Dawn EP opens with a funky, pounding, howling rocker entitled “Black Crow” (coincidence?), a song whose mix of guitar and organ helps give it that ’60s/’70s sound. “Hold,” following, is basically a nearly-four-minute vocal-and-instrumental jam that ramps up halfway through to the line “and I believe that freedom has got a hold on me” before pausing to take a breath, then erupting in raucous instrumental cacophony. (And repeats.)

image courtesy of BJF Media

“Ways of Sailing” starts out by slowing things down in an almost Allman-esque way, but it only stays mellow for the first minute and a quarter. Indeed, Silveroller can’t seem to resist amping things up to a power-rocking beat, tempo, and volume, building to a wall of musical noise, at least from time to time. There is a bit of late-song harmony in this song that’s a preview of what’s to come later. But the band’s jam-band tendencies are only briefly resisted.

“Turn to Gold” is more of a straightforward blues-rocking wailer. It’s clearly a ’70s-styled blues rocker, but it’s a little less musically intense than any of the preceding numbers. “Other Side” follows in a similarly bluesy rock vein but its thumping rhythm is intermingled with some almost choir-like harmonies. Although I’m sure the first five tracks kill live, the finesse of “Other Side” is a nice contrast – it spends a lot less time being cranked up to 11 than the prior songs, and it even has a less cluttered late-song guitar solo – making it my second favorite song on At Dawn.

photo courtesy of BJF Media

Album-closer “Come On, Come In” is absolutely, definitely, undeniably my favorite Silveroller song. Again, the finesse appeals to me. The vocals soar but still retain an edge. There’s some serious classic rock guitarwork that carries the middle of the song. And there’s an uplifting, almost Gospel feeling to much of the song, the way the song builds to power and sustains but with a full, kind of airy vocal. Trust me, rock fans – this song’ll give you chills.

To be honest, I almost just reviewed “Come On, Come In,” which was released as a single in late 2023, because it’s such an amazing song, but then I gave the EP a few listens, and beginning to end, At Dawn is a helluva rock record, one you’ll enjoy from beginning to end and a collection deserving of a full review. And just because my favorites came at the end of the disc doesn’t mean yours will. But from a holistic standpoint, it’s nice that Silveroller provided a comparatively soft landing after front-loading the EP with so much power.