Circle of Silence has had somewhat of an opportunity to really bring their style of vicious power metal to the masses after similar bands like Iced Earth and Mystic Prophecy have been blessed with tremendous success and undying loyalty from hungry fans. "The Rise of Resistance" is the fourth full-length record from these German warriors, an intense album of thrash-laden power metal that sounds dark, ravenous, sharp, grisly, and other adjectives often associated with something mean and nasty. Despite a solid formula based on menacing riffs and catchy choruses, Circle of Silence comes away with an average-ranked record that bobs like some schizophrenic yoyo between the ceiling of the sky and the dirt-dwelling gutters of damnation. This mostly feels like a collection of five or six excellent songs with the remaining numbers trying to stick to the occasional superiority, albeit to little avail.Circle of Silence spends most of the album throwing out heavy riffs and circling around choruses; not a bad way to work around the whole power metal thing. It's simplistic, but it pays off immensely, and that's all that matters. There isn't much variation in the guitar work, as most of the riffs are thrashy chugs and grinding rockers that conjure an image of some love child between Mystic Prophecy and Iced Earth. Throughout the sinister "One Moment of Hate," they launch into a feral riff that is probably the best collection of guitar notes the album has to offer with blast beats exploding underneath while Niklas Keim's strangling voice howls over the carnage, and it's just an awesome display of intensity and dynamism.
"The Rise of Resistance" sounds like Mystic Prophecy working under a modern thrash tint: nothing advanced or perplexing shows up, but it is loud, aggressive, nasty, and devilish. Several of the remaining cuts are simply incredible, even though there's little variation between anthems. "Mind Conspiracy" and "Blood of Enemies"—two examples of Circle of Silence's performance—are A-grade themes of excellent songwriting and execution despite being rather easy compositions—again, they just know how to design admirable pieces. However, "The Rise of Resistance" has a dozen cuts that apply a near-identical blueprint in total, and they sadly run off course many times throughout the album. Mid-paced misfires like "Nothing Shall Remain" are completely devoid of charisma, and other odes are poor rehashes of the album's better pieces.
An abundance of the duds lurk near the conclusion of "The Rise of Resistance," and Circle of Silence is pretty much running on fumes by the time that they hit "The Final Chapter." Several of the ending numbers, especially "The Architect of Immortality," glorify many hallmarks of poor songwriting and execution, unfortunately leaving the opus to exit with the irksome remains of a dire and arid equation which had previously been a lush, vibrant oasis for this group. Make no mistake, "The Rise of Resistance" has its moments, but the lacking sections stick out like Yao Ming walking the streets of Shanghai. I suppose a passable effort overall, yet it could've been so much more. What a shame.