Gun – Break The Silence (2012) Review

Fifteen years is a very long time.

Long enough to raise a family, witness thirty six solar eclipses, or finish one Chinese Democracy.

For Gun, it was long enough for everything to fall apart.

Break The Silence arrived in 2012 not as a victory lap, but as a corrective; a deliberate attempt by the Scottish rockers to rebuild trust with their fanbase after the missteps that spelled doom for their original line-up, namely 1997’s 0141 632 6326.

"I won't let you down this time."

Break The Silence

A Failed Comeback Attempt

Gun’s comeback was anything but straightforward.

Founding members the Gizzi brothers had already tried to get things moving again in 2009, only to be rocked by the news that talismanic frontman Mark Rankin had declined his invitation to return.

They acted fast, drafting in the capable Toby Jepson, but with only two parts of the original trifecta back in place, things already felt uncertain.

Then came the Popkiller EP.

Polished to within an inch of its life, it sounded a million miles away from the blue-collar rock that had made the Scottish outfit so formidable on their early records. Fans responded with radio silence, and the new-look line-up dissolved shortly after its release.

At that point, it seemed like the writing was on the wall for Gun.

Thankfully, the brothers-in-arms disagreed.

Rather than abandoning the comeback altogether, they carried on rehearsing — and during those sessions, bassist Dante Gizzi stepped forward to the microphone himself. He had already provided backing vocals throughout the band’s classic years, so the brothers were hopeful fans might be more accepting of the enforced change.

And what initially looked like a one-time experiment ended up changing Gun’s trajectory completely:

Not because Dante sounded like Mark Rankin version 2.0.

But because he didn’t.

A New Era

Within thirty seconds of opening track Butcher Man, it’s clear that this is a rejuvenated Gun.

The groove is back, the guitars have some bite again, and after the car crash of 0141, there’s a welcome sense that everybody involved finally knows the mission objective.

Dave Eringa’s compact production plays a big part in that, striking a satisfying middle ground between the understated grit Gallus and the towering scale of Swagger. The result is something of a best-of-both-worlds scenario that makes the record feel incredibly light on its feet.

It also gives Dante the space he needs.

His voice is lighter, raspier and far more elastic than Rankin’s, which changes the feel of the band immediately. There’s no attempt to manufacture that old baritone weight, and although the difference takes a little getting used to, it gives Break The Silence an identity of its own rather than turning Gun’s comeback into a nostalgia-fest.

Return Of The Rhythm Section

There’s a lot to like here.

From the sombre reflection of How Many Roads to the jangly guitars of Bad Things, Gun sound far more like themselves again, with the pop sheen of their late-’90s detour stripped away in favour of something leaner and more direct.

A big part of that comes from new drummer Paul McManus.

He adds some serious punching power to the record, giving the rhythm section the kind of forward momentum that had been missing for years. That extra weight helps the absurdly catchy choruses of Lost & Found, No Substitute and Running Out Of Time hit with maximum impact — all three sounding strong enough to have made a genuine run at mainstream rock radio.

Even better are 14 Stations and Innocent Thieves.

The former is a thunderous rocker that proves Gun have lost none of their instincts for writing arena-sized anthems, while Innocent Thieves slows the pace, wrapping a gigantic singalong chorus around one of the album’s strongest melodies.

And by this point, Dante no longer feels like “the new guy behind the microphone”. His raspier, multi-octave range bends naturally around these songs, giving the hooks a different shape from the Mark Rankin era while sounding increasingly comfortable at the centre of the band.

Where It Falls Short

If Break The Silence has a limitation, it’s that Gun’s new identity won’t suit everyone.

Dante’s voice changes the feel of of the band quite dramatically.

He can go higher, push harder and wrap himself around melodies in ways Rankin never really did — think somewhere between Axl Rose and Gerard Way — but there’s no getting around the fact that the old baritone is gone.

Some fans will prefer the extra range.

Others will miss the weight.

Then there’s the small matter of Giuliano Gizzi’s guitar work.

The Scottish axeman has never been the type to spend three minutes showing you how many notes he can squeeze into a solo, but Break The Silence occasionally takes that trademark restraint too far.

There simply aren’t enough proper guitar solos here.

Granted, by 2012, long lead breaks were hardly fashionable, but Gun were never about pointless excess in the first place — nor were they ever a band particularly interested in following current trends.

That makes Gizzi’s decision feel even stranger; several of these tracks are already strong, but you can hear the space where one final burst from Jools might have pushed them into something even stronger.

Gun: Break The Silence

Break The Silence doesn’t attempt to reinvent Gun — it reclaims them.

After years of uncertainty and false starts, the band return sounding unified, purposeful and hungry again, rediscovering the groove and directness that made their early records so effective in the first place.

It also feels like a genuine new chapter rather than a nostalgia exercise.

Sure, Dante’s voice alters the shape of the material, and some longtime fans may never truly prefer it to Mark Rankin’s gritty low register, but the songs on Break The Silence are strong enough to make this transition feel worthwhile.

Most importantly, Gun don’t sound like a band looking backwards.

Keep the groove intact, dial up the distortion, and their unlikely “second life” could prove to be every bit as interesting as the first.