THE SILVER make their Gilead Media debut with the album Ward of Roses. A record that is at once extreme and exposed, horrific yet beautiful, Ward of Roses explores anxiety, love, loss, and the matters that make us all too human. From “First Utterance” to “Then Silence” the curtain rises and falls on a haunting tableau of human frailty, a romantic and visceral exploration of the dark recesses of the soul. Featuring members of Horrendous and Crypt Sermon, Ward of Roses marks a decidedly different path for the musical collective. An album that deals in blast beats as much as romanticism, Ward of Roses progresses through movements that draw from black metal, goth rock, and other bleak expressions. V’s soaring clean vocals mingle with cathartic guitars while vocalist Nick Duchemin howls over strident blast passages often in the same song. THE SILVER’s ethos alludes to metallurgy. Silver can only reach its intended shape, state, and purpose when hammered, set ablaze, and struck again. As the hymns of Ward of Roses suggest, we are tempered through all of our life experiences and traumas, emerging only after we have leapt through the flames of our personal abysses.