After several lineup changes, the band acquired Billy Hamilton, a local fan who learned of the band's need for a bassist on the Internet message board "The 905 Board" (an Ontario area outreach board which used to be for local musicians). In Christmas of 2001, he joined the band after Shane Told helped him learn the music for the songs. Following a rehearsal on Boxing Day (December 26) in 2001, he officially debuted with Silverstein. The next spring, original guitarist Richard McWalter left the band to move to Victoria, British Columbia to study engineering. He was then replaced by Neil Boshart, childhood friend of Shane Told. The new lineup recorded a second EP, When the Shadows Beam, in preparation for their first tour in Eastern Canada.
The band then signed to Victory Records in October of 2002 with a complete lineup as Hamilton attempted to complete his secondary education one semester early. The January after, the band recorded their full-length debut CD When Broken Is Easily Fixed, released on the Victory Records label.
In August 2005 the band's second studio album, Discovering the Waterfront, was released through Victory Records. It was the first album to be produced by Cameron Webb, and marked the beginning of a long relationship between the band and the American producer. It also marked a shift in sound from When Broken Is Easily Fixed, with faster paced and more energetic songs, and with the band also incorporating more punk rock aspects into their music. Told's clean and unclean vocals had matured since their previous effort. Discovering The Waterfront opened the band up to a wider audience, with the music video for the first single "Smile in Your Sleep" receiving airplay on stations such as FUSE and IMF. The album sold 26,229 copies in its first week.
The band's third full-length album, Arrivals And Departures, was released on July 3, 2007, and was designated by AP Magazine as one of the most eagerly anticipated CDs of 2007. Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, Finch) produced the CD. The album sold 27,000 copies in its first week. Silverstein also contributed a new acoustic version of their song "Red Light Pledge" to the Punk Goes Acoustic 2 compilation, released May 8, 2007 through Fearless Records.
On December 14, 2008, the band announced by Myspace bulletin that their fourth album would be released by March 31, 2009. The name of the new album, A Shipwreck in the Sand, was announced on January 29, 2009, when the band concluded a viral marketing campaign by announcing the track listing via an album website, also revealing it would be a concept album. Along with the demo of "Broken Stars", which the band had been performing during their final U.S. tour in support of "Arrivals and Departures", short clips of the songs "Vices", "Born Dead" and "American Dream" were made available on MySpace On March 17, the band filmed a music video for "Vices" with director Robby Starbuck. Later, on March 23, 2009, the band posted the full album to stream on their official MySpace page.
A Shipwreck in the Sand was released on March 31, 2009 and sold nearly 17,000 copies in its first week. The iTunes version of the album includes four bonus cover songs, "Help!" (The Beatles cover), Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac Cover), Three Miles Down (Saves The Day cover), and Total Bummer (NOFX cover).
Silverstein contributed a cover version of "Apologize", originally recorded by OneRepublic, to the Punk Goes Pop 2 compilation album.
On October 8, 2010, online rumors spread about their new album reportedly being titled Set This All Ablaze, and that it would again be released through Silverstein's long time label, Victory Records. The band later rejected the rumor that the new album will be titled Set This All Ablaze, although they did confirm their departure from Victory. However, as of the first week of October 2010, Silverstein's official website contained a banner stating Set This All Ablaze.
On November 15, Silverstein announced on Facebook that they have signed with Hopeless Records in the USA/Europe/Japan and with Universal Music in Canada. They also said that a new EP entitled Transitions will be released December 7 and will feature two songs from their new album coming out next year as well as three additional b-sides. In response to a fan on Tumblr, Shane Told described the new music as "a cross between Discovering the Waterfront and A Shipwreck in the Sand". On December 3, 2010, the band posted the first single, Sacrifice, off of the new EP. On February 9, 2011, Silverstein confirmed on their Facebook and Tumblr that their new album will be called Rescue. On February 15, 2011, the band posted the album artwork for Rescue on their official Facebook page. On February 19, 2011, 89X Radio aired a new song from the band named "Burning Hearts". On February 22, 2011, in response to a fan on Facebook, the band stated that they were not releasing a traditional lead single from the new album, and that they had made three music videos so far. They then went on to state that the new record has "tons of screaming and breakdowns". The album, Rescue, was released on April 26, 2011. Silverstein has also recorded a song featuring Ryan Key of Yellowcard called "Stay Posi" (Stay Positive) for the Take Action! Vol 10. Compilation.
On October 17, 2011, the band posted a new video on their YouTube channel about an upcoming release. They announced that are in process of recording a new album called Short Songs with producer Jordan Valeriote, scheduled for release on February 7, 2012. They also said that the EP will contain 22 songs under 90 seconds with half songs being covers of punk songs that influenced them. Silverstein contributed a cover version of "Runaway", originally recorded by Kanye West, to the Punk Goes Pop 4 compilation album, released in November 21, 2011. On December 1, 2011, the band streamed two songs off Short Songs, "SOS" and "Brookfield", as well as their covers of Green Day's "The Ballad of Wilhelm Fink" and NOFX's "It's My Job to Keep Punk Rock Elite" on PunkNews.
On the SHORT TOUR, the band began announcing that they would have a new album in 2013. On September 25, 2012, the band announced that Neil Boshart was no longer a member of the band, after 11 years together. He was replaced by former I Am Committing A Sin guitarist Paul Marc Rousseau. Told later revealed that Boshart's replacement was due to many years of growing apart, stating there was very little contribution to Short Songs from Boshart.
On November 26, 2012, the band announced that their seventh studio album would be titled This Is How the Wind Shifts and would be released on February 5, 2013. A few hours later they also released the first single, titled "Stand Amid The Roar". On January 15, 2013 the band released the lyric video for the song "Massachusetts" from their seventh album.
The band's eighth studio album I Am Alive In Everything I Touch was released on May 19, 2015. Coinciding with the album's announcement, Silverstein released a music video for the track "A Midwestern State of Emergency." On March 4 the band released the second single from the album, Milestone, with a lyric video to accompany the release. On March 16, 2016, Silverstein released the third music video from the album, "The Continual Condition." Later, on July 27, 2016, they released a music video for "Toronto (Unabridged)".
On October 13, 2016, Silverstein announced the streaming "Ghost" on SiriusXM. Later that day, they released the music video on YouTube and the song on iTunes. Silverstein said on social media that the upcoming studio album will be released in 2017. On Thursday, May 18, 2017, Silverstein released the second single from the record, "Retrograde", as well as announced the track listing and title of the record, "Dead Reflection", which was released on July 14, 2017. Dead Reflection was released worldwide on July 14, 2017.
Madness
Silverstein Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We do it to ourselves
In the eye of the storm
But it feels like hell
Ignoring the signs
We just keep doing the same damn thing
Yeah
I can't tell if it's the start or the end
Over and over we're at it again
I'm talking back to the voice in my head like
You, you, you know
It's too fast
Too close
This isn't love
This is madness
You, you, you know
Too far gone
So it goes
This isn't love
This is madness
How many times is enough
Where do I draw the line?
'Cause when it feels like trust
It gets me every time
Deep down I know better
But I just keep letting you twist the knife
Yeah
Over and over we're at it again
I can't tell if it's the start or the end
Over and over we're at it again
Now I'm talking back to the voice in my head like
You, you, you know
It's too fast
Too close
This isn't love
This is madness
You, you, you know
Too far gone
So it goes
This isn't love
This is madness
I took my heart back, and no you can't have it
This isn't love, it's straight out of madness
Doing drugs, our love was a habit
Your drug is good, but I am an addict
I'm a romantic ambulance chaser
Fuck pen, let's write in eraser
And when it's all done I'll be alright
I thought last time was the last time
Enough, enough, it's time to wreak havoc
I'm going cold, I'm caught in your madness
Soon enough, you'll only end tragic
I hear your voice all covered in sadness
Over and over we're at it again
I can't tell if it's the start or the end
Over and over we're at it again
I'm talking back to the voice in my head like
You, you, you know
It's too fast
Too close
This isn't love
This is madness
You, you, you know
Too far gone
So it goes
This isn't love
This is madness
(It's madness)
You, you, you know
This isn't love, this is madness
The song, "Madness" by Princess Nokia and Silverstein showcases a toxic, cyclical relationship. The lyrics detail the familiar patterns of destructive behavior shared between two people who know that neither of them are good for each other. The opening line, "I think we've been here before, we do it to ourselves" expresses the inevitability of the relationship's dynamics, while the line "Deep down I know better, but I just keep letting you twist the knife" explores the complicated emotions and conflict that people have when being drawn to harmful relationships.
Throughout the song, the chorus repeats the lines, "This isn't love, this is madness" which emphasizes that their relationship is all-consuming, harmful and not based in love but rather in the manic chaos of their mutual behavior. The writers are trying to communicate how it feels to believe that you can’t control your feelings around a person despite knowing that you would be better off avoiding them. The song creates a contrast between the feeling of knowing that you are in a harmful relationship, while also feeling incapable of stopping yourself from repeating the same mistakes, as expressed in the lyrics, "Over and over we're at it again, I can't tell if it's the start or the end."
Overall, the song is about the familiar cycle of a toxic relationship and how it often feels like you are fighting against yourself to break free from the relationship. The chorus, which repeats the mantra of "this isn't love, this is madness," makes a powerful statement about the pervasive nature of toxic relationships in our society.
Line by Line Meaning
I think we've been here before
I have a feeling that we have already experienced this situation
We do it to ourselves
We are responsible for causing our own problems
In the eye of the storm
Caught up in the middle of turmoil and chaos
But it feels like hell
It's a terrible and unbearable experience
Ignoring the signs
We choose to overlook warning signals indicating potential danger
We just keep doing the same damn thing
We repeatedly make the same mistakes and never learn from them
Over and over we're at it again
We keep ending up in the same situation, repeating the cycle
I can't tell if it's the start or the end
I'm unsure whether we are beginning or ending the cycle
You, you, you know
It's too fast
Too close
This isn't love
This is madness
You are aware that this relationship is moving too quickly and is too intense to be considered love. Rather, it's a form of insanity.
Too far gone
So it goes
This isn't love
This is madness
We are past the point of no return, and this relationship is not love but madness.
How many times is enough
Where do I draw the line?
I am questioning how many times we need to go through this and when to set boundaries.
When it feels like trust
It gets me every time
Every time I begin to trust you, you betray me again.
Deep down I know better
But I just keep letting you twist the knife
Despite knowing that this relationship is harmful to me, I allow you to keep hurting me.
I took my heart back, and no you can't have it
This isn't love, it's straight out of madness
Doing drugs, our love was a habit
Your drug is good, but I am an addict
I took control of my own heart and won't let you have it back, because this relationship is not love, it's an addiction. Just like drugs, your love was a habit, and now I'm addicted.
I'm a romantic ambulance chaser
Fuck pen, let's write in eraser
And when it's all done I'll be alright
I thought last time was the last time
I am always chasing after love, even when it's unhealthy. Instead of writing in pen, which leaves permanent marks, let's write in eraser and correct our mistakes. Even though I thought the last time would be the end, I'm still here.
Enough, enough, it's time to wreak havoc
I'm going cold, I'm caught in your madness
Soon enough, you'll only end tragic
I hear your voice all covered in sadness
Enough is enough; it's time to cause chaos in this relationship. I am losing my feelings for you, and I'm stuck in this madness you created. Soon, you will end up with nothing but sadness, and I hear it in your voice.
It's madness
You, you, you know
This isn't love, this is madness
It's a form of insanity, and you know that this is not love.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Paul Marc Rousseau
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
E V
I bet Princess Nokia was freaking out about this collab! How would you feel getting to work on a song with a band you grew up listening to? Amazing ♥️♥️♥️
Juan Cruz Fabi
I love Silverstein more than I love myself
KoaAbyss
honestly same
Jarrett Øath
How this sounds nothing like old Silverstein. Extremely generic.
I Killed The P*rn Queen
the same words i told to my ex gf in high school....
César Mejía
That isn't love, that is madness.
I'd Spread My Cheeks For You Any Day Dad
I love pretty much everything else more than myself
nathan smith
This is how a band properly ages. Can't wait for what's next
Rebecca Wood
Silverstein never have bad music... ever. One of the best bands out there
Raphael Michael Giuroiu
Never thought to hear princess Nokia and Silverstein in the same song but I guess dreams can come true