Not to confuse with Escape faves Radio Silence under a radical name trimmage, Silence are a French/Belgian duo with a deliciously similar sound in places but put more ably close to all AOR’s significant names.

Releasing two albums at once is a somewhat fabled rarity, famed by a band called Guns and..somebody- or-other but these two discs sure come with some corkers. ‘City’ (Days) shows their Nelson like tendencies in swift clarity and on the subject of such, Ben Venet’s Bon Jovi - moulded mega-range sets in a pleasant journey ahead. From upbeat pop rockers like ‘Beggars Day’ , ‘Father’, ‘Brand New Start’, ‘Guardian Angel’ , ‘The End Of The Day’ and 'Business' to Tyketto -carved ballad ‘Jenny’ and the female-vocalled ‘Lift Me Up’ you couldn’t have blamed these boys for spying on the US scene this last twenty years to accumulate their research.

Guitarist, Bruno Levesque’s solo an piano work here is a silky delectable Peterik-influenced powerhouse that sets the listener up ready for ‘City’ (Nights’) before the first phase is even halfway finished. Few might have actually been that ready for how the second disc rumbles in from the start, rocking mightily hard in contrast to the predecessor. ’Drifting Away’ picks up where we left off halfway in but on a hard plane, a strong Dokken /Winger accent over that riffing there.

Harmonies reminiscent of Swedish hotshots Work Of Art are the established norm by this stage, semi acoustic lushness of ‘Ghosts’ getting it interesting in the familiar ol’ style. As form ‘Taste Of The Past’ onwards, the start becomes a sweet mislead as the sugary summer lustfulness picks up exactly where left off, great huge semi-acoustic AOR emotion all the way forward. ’Crashing Down’, ’Memory of Blue Eyes’, 'Someday', and 'Promised Land' are the tunes Europeans get so good at writing nowadays they leave their Stateside and Canadian counterparts almost crawling in the mud to keep with.

A revisit to the harder-crusted end of their catalogue with 'Just One Kiss on Your Heart' before ending with awesome ballads ‘Out of The Dream’ and 'Goodbye to The Good Old Days' makes up for a fitting culminative trio that takes us back all twenty two numbers once again to see if we were just dreaming. I’d safely say that in truth it feels so much the case, Silence showing one and hopefully sundry how melodic rock lives to be played here on in 2012. If you trust the continent for a lesson or twenty two, let these two lads educate you with this pair of treats.

Tres excellent, monsieurs!

9.5/10

By Dave Attrill

RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE: Bon Jovi, Mitch Malloy, Journey, Street Talk, Def Leppard, Drive She Said & Nelson.

NET: www.myspace.com/silenceaor