Canadian quintet Silverstein has translated its natural musical chemistry into the intoxicating signature blend of Indie Rock, Hardcore, Metal, Punk, Emo and Screamo that has dominated the band’s impressive catalog, which contains nine studio albums, including their latest, 2017’s Dead Reflection.
The band’s founding members — Shane Told on lead vocals, keyboards and bass; Richard McWalter on lead guitar; Josh Bradford on rhythm guitar; and Paul Koehler on drums — were all avid readers of author and singer/songwriter Shel Silverstein’s children’s books. His death in 1999, a year before Silverstein formed in Burlington, Ontario, gave the group its name.
After self-releasing their first EP, McWalter left to pursue an engineering degree and was replaced by guitarist Neil Boshart, and bassist Billy Hamilton was brought in, leaving Told to concentrate on vocals.
In 2003, Silverstein released its first album, When Broken Is Easily Fixed, through Victory Records. The band’s current tour is in celebration of their landmark debut LP.
The group’s lineup remained intact for about a decade, during which Silverstein issued a handful of well-received albums on Victory and toured constantly. At the conclusion of the support tour for 2012’s Short Songs, their debut for Hopeless Records, the band announced that Boshart was no longer a member and that he had been replaced by Paul Marc Rousseau; it was later revealed that Boshart and the band had drifted apart and that he had virtually no input on Short Songs. In 2013, Silverstein released This is How the Wind Shifts, a concept album for Hopeless, followed by 2015’s I Am Alive in Everything I Touch and last year’s Dead Reflection.
Silverstein has worked incredibly hard over the past 18 years, a testament to the closing line written by its namesake in his poem “The Little Blue Engine”: “If the track is tough and the hill is rough, thinking you can just ain’t enough!”
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This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 5, 2018.