no big thing

No-Big-Silence

No-Big-Silence (often abbreviated as "NBS"), originally known as Aggressor, is an industrial metal/rock band from Estonia.

History

Early years as Aggressor (1989-1995)

The beginnings of Aggressor lay back in 1989 when Villem Tarvas, Marek Piliste, Kristo Kotkas and Marko Atso started playing together as an unnamed band. At the start of 1990 they released their first demo album named Indestructible - the music on this recording was influenced by German thrash metal band Kreator. Their first big performance was on the 17th of April 1990, and a year later they put together a 4 track demo which resulted in the recording of their first album, Procreate the Petrifactions at the end of 1992. Later on they played several shows in Moscow and in 1994 they released their second album Of Long Duration Anguish. The band was first introduced to a wider audience in the summer of 1995 at the Rock Summer festival in Estonia, where Aggressor headlined the B-stage - the crowd gave them a warm welcome.

Change of style and renaming to No-Big-Silence (1995-1996)

In 1994 bass guitarist Cram sung a cover version of Corrosia Metalla's "Russian Vodka" for the album Of Long Duration Anguish. This later resulted in the idea of changing the band's style from death metal towards industrial.

In 1995 the band went to studio (still as Aggressor) and were suggested a name-change. In 1996 they wrote lyrics to a song titled "No-Big-Silence 99" (a street in the USA where a mass murder was committed) - so the album was titled 99 and band renamed to "No-Big-Silence".

Success (1996-present)

After the 1995 Rock Summer festival, No-Big-Silence has successfully performed at larger festivals as well as at smaller clubs in Estonia, the Baltic States, Russia and Scandinavia. No-Big-Silence is valued as a live-act with an impressive show, esteemed by world class bands such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Rammstein, HIM, Motörhead, Waltari, etc, who have chosen NBS to be their supporting act.

The chairman of the concert agency BDG, Peeter Rebane, the local promoter for Metallica, Iron Maiden and Rammstein, comments: "In our opinion, No-Big-Silence is the most professional industrial band in the Baltics. Besides, they are a great live-act."

Their second release Successful, Bitch & Beautiful was already the album of current hit-songs such as "On the Hunt" and "Vamp-o-Drama". In 2001 the album was sold in Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and other European countries through the Finnish label Cyberware Production. The homepage of Cyberware states that this album of No-Big-Silence is a magnificent masterpiece and regards it as one of the label's strongest releases today. According to Cyberware, the bonus video "Star DeLuxe" on the western version of the album gives a good overview of the band's glamorous live-show and enthusiastic fanbase. The Scandinavian music magazine Prospective Magazine thinks that Successful, Bitch & Beautiful is a "must listen to"-album. The review in the same magazines gives No-Big-Silence 8 out of 10 points. Johan Carlsson, a reviewer for the Swedish Release Magazine distinguishes the even and uniform quality of the album. "Metal riffs melded with electronic sounds on top of rock song structures make an interesting mixture, and the vocals fit perfectly." Positively surprised, he continues: "It is nice to see an Estonian band, but don't buy it because of that. Buy it because it is good."

Musical style

The music of NBS has been variously described as sounding very much like Marilyn Manson and at times even Rammstein or Nine Inch Nails.

Their style has been generally the same through out their albums apart from their first two, Procreate the Petrifactions and Of Long Duration Anguish, which are death metal. Successful, Bitch & Beautiful can be considered their softest album as it contains a mix of metal and rock. Unreleased is their heaviest and most electronic album and War In Wonderland their darkest and most "metal" album.

"No-Big-Silence, unlike most of the hard rock bands, that get their inspiration from mysticism, concentrates on expressing the twists and turns of human psychology in the language of pop music. It is a great achievement in itself - to sound tough and delicate at the same time."

– Marko Mägi from Eesti Ekspress weekly

Influences

The band lists as their influences Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, KoRn, Rammstein, Rob Zombie, Filter and Depeche Mode.

Band members

As Aggressor

Villem Tarvas – vocals, guitar (1989-1995)
Marek Piliste – bass (1989-1995)
Kristo Kotkas – guitar (1989-1995)
Marko Atso – drums (1989-1995)

As No-Big-Silence

Marek Piliste (a.k.a. Cram) – lead vocals (1995-present)
Villem Tarvas (a.k.a. Willem) – bass, guitar, backing vocals (1995-present)
Kristo Kotkas (a.k.a. Kristo K) – guitar, keyboards and programming (1995-present)
Rainer Mere – drums (2008-present)