Final verdict: 9/10 ★★★★⋆˙⟡
I have a lot of thoughts on this piece; though I will do my best to lay them out in an intelligible fashion, I don’t guarantee you anything.
Order of Silence; a surprisingly mild rock band, unlike what its impossibly metal name may suggest. From what I’ve gathered, Order of Silence was active for a short time in the 1980s, with close to zero discography – no single, no LP, just a guitar and a dream. Well…
Flashforward to now; former Order of Silence members Graham Perry and Brad Cole reunite at their bandmate Ernie Aguilar’s funeral and decide to team up to create “the record [Order of Silence] never recorded” in memory of their deceased friend. And that, they did – peep the self-titled “Order of Silence” LP, freshly landed just this September! And most notably, “Solemn Monday”, the song I was totally-not-commissioned to check out this time around.
Well… it’s a hit! Again, profuse apologies to all the metalheads who got a hard-on just reading the band’s name, this is not that. What this is, at its essence, is dad rock with very polished 2025 production. I can totally feel the 80s/90s rock influence (no imitation, either – these guys were alive and active back then, they know what they’re doin’!), and maybe a bit of country-rock leaning as well. It’s a fun deal! Though the lyrics are focused around a case of the Monday blues (grim), the tune itself is upbeat and uplifting. The background vocals and the horns in the final chorus really bring this song to greater heights, so hey – thank you for reuniting, Order of Silence! The world desperately needs more cheerful dad rock like this.
This record sounds exactly like something I’d discover while digging through the bargain bin at a dusty hole-in-the-wall record store; and that is a compliment, because bargain bins in dusty hole-in-the-wall record stores is where all the bangers reside, anyway.
9/10. Love myself a fun song with a heart-warming story to back it up.
Links:
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/track/3en3CrFCkOtdkOcgfs8YHF?si=a4ff4571c1244e0d
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/C2pQXanpZ8Y?si=gV6utR42pW7DKqlm
ONLINE: https://orderofsilence.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GrahamPerryandtheAfterthoughts/
Silia 
Leave a comment