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"A Place Where The Sun Is Silent" is the newest release from North Carolina rockers, Alesana. The album is a follow-up to last year's release of "The Emptiness" which, like all Alesana records, was a concept album that this time explored ideas of Edgar Allen Poe. "A Place Where The Sun Is Silent" is based on the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy, called "Inferno". The album is broken into two "acts", the first being "Act I - The Gate", and the second called "Act II - The Immortal Still".

Through the years, Alesana has truly found and honed their sound with each album released. "A Place Where The Sun Is Silent" is no exception, with the band bringing in heavy use of strings and brass sections, which is a refreshing twist to their post-hardcore sound. The band's sound is thick and full with the added instrumentation, and truly sets them apart from the massive sea of post-hardcore bands that all sound quite a bit the same. Shawn Mike's vocals are instantly recognizable to fans of Alesana, and are as crips and clean as ever, and Dennis Lee's screams, and the wide range of sounds that he can produce still sets Alesana apart from the typically generic sound that can accompany the genre.

Alesana has gotten quite the rap in the post-hardcore scene (who can forget the ending of their song "And They Call This Tragedy" from their second album, which was a bit of an embarassment if you ask me (and most post-hardcore fans)), and to say that this album causes trepidation for fans of Alesana, and non-fans alike is to put it mildly. For me, the band is completely hit or miss, and when they hit with a song, they hit it hard and nail it out of the ballpark, but when they miss, they tend to miss in spectacular fashion and go down in a hail of bullets, so to speak. The band has definitely improved, of that most people can agree. Perhaps my favorite improvement that the band made, has been to showcase guitarist Patrick Thompson's soloing skills in songs like the six-minute "Beyond The Sacred Glass".

The album is twenty-four tracks long, which for a post-hardcore album is extremely long, clocking it at just over an hour long. The trouble with an hour of screaming and post-hardcore music, is that one typically develops a pounding migraine, however, with this album, Alesana has placed (I'd like to think stratigically) songs throughout to allow your brain to mellow out a touch, while still keeping true to their sound. Track number five "The Temptress" is a perfect example of one of their songs that gives the eardrums a small break.

If you've seen any of my reviews of hardcore bands in the past, you'll know that I am not typically a fan of the genre, it's just not my favorite to listen to, however, I truly did enjoy "A Place Where The Sun Is Silent" for the majority of the time. Alesana has experimented with different sounds in the album that I enjoyed, "Welcome To The Vanity Faire" from the second act pulls from Pop-Punk bands, "The Wanderer" is a piano-based duet, and throughout the use of a thick strings sections are used perfectly, and brass horns brighten up the sound a bit.

If you're a fan of Alesana, I dare say that you'll enjoy the new sounds that the band has toyed with you. Alesana really has split fans of the genre, and if you fall on the side of dislike for the band, I respect that, however, even tried and true "haters" of the band can admit that with each record Alesana gets better and better.

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