Blame Canada.

Thanks to the proliferation of Britney Spears wannabes and the death of Kurt Cobain, Seattle has ceased to be the center of the underground music hub. Southern Ontario, Canada, is the new breeding ground for innovative experimental rock music. Most notable are the fresh sounds of the melodically hardcore five-piece band Silverstein. Born from the same primordial Toronto-based soup as other breakthrough underground bands like Moneen, Grade, Somehow Hollow and Maharahj, Silverstein has a diversity missing in the mainstream emo-candy-punk currently contaminating the airwaves.

The band’s debut album, When Broken is Easily Fixed, was created by the band members as a way of destroying the barriers socially erected between emo, hardcore and punk. The conglomeration of genres is evident and not always subtle. The vocals are everywhere – one minute it’s ear-shredding European-style metal screaming, the next melodic harmonies and tearful violins. The band’s strength comes from being able to scream without becoming obnoxious and emotionally singing without seeming whiny. The members convincingly pull off talking about girls without falling into the trap of self-indulgent nostalgia.

The album is undeniably hardcore with strong emo roots that are completely devoid of the pop overtones so prevalent in today’s upcoming bands. “When Broken is Easily Fixed” shows the strong influence of bands like Thursday, Poison the Well, Slayer and The Get Up Kids.

The guitars range from regular throbbing, to driving and uplifting riffs. The songs on the second half of the album are surprisingly deceptive, starting out with strings and soft, sensitive lyrics, to suddenly explode into a fury of rage and frustration. Erratic rhythms mix happiness, anger and sadness in the same song, and sometimes, the same stanza.

Everything about this band and this album is surprising and not quite what you expect, even the origin of the band’s name. The band was named in honor of Shel Silverstein, author of the popular children’s books Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree. The band members read the books when they were young.

“When Broken is Easily Fixed” is a poignant journey of naïve boy to wiser, but defiantly unjaded, young man reacting to rejection and betrayal with cutting lyrical and vocal precision. The most popular songs on the album, “Giving Up” and “Smashed Into Pieces,” epitomize the dark and morbid honesty the band expresses through its gut-wrenching songs. Silverstein is terribly effective at what it does and well worth the time spent listening to the music and picking apart the complex lyrics.

Pick this album up if you want well-balanced dish chock full of emotion with tight and well-packaged songs with just the appropriate level of melodrama. Isn’t it time we had a little more diversity?