Silent Nation

Silent Nation was recorded at Clear Lake Audio in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, and produced, engineered and mixed solely by Payne. The album features a stable line-up consisting of Payne, keyboard player Geoff Downes, guitarist Guthrie Govan and drummer Chris Slade, which had been achieved during Aura (2001) sessions. Early writing sessions were with guitarist and future member Billy Sherwood and drummer Jay Schellen. Eventually, two songs, "Ghost in the Mirror" and "I Will Be There for You", co-written by Sherwood, made the final album. "Darkness Day" and "The Prophet" were initially announced as "The Sun Don't Shine" and "Sail Away", respectively. An early track listing included "Long and Lonely Ride", but it was not finished in time. The main lyricist for Silent Nation was Payne. The lyrics are essentially based around the idea of the power centralization in the modern world, disfranchising the general public.[1][2]

The album finally broke the tradition of naming Asia studio recordings with a word beginning and ending with the letter 'a'. The exception is Rare (1999), a collection of instrumental music, which was composed only by Payne and Downes, and, thus, may be viewed as their solo album. Silent Nation is also the first album to feature a photograph, not an illustration, as was Asia's trademark.

Silent Nation was released on 31 August 2004 by Inside Out Music on CD and special edition CD/DVD-Video (featuring the making of the album).[3] In Japan, it became available on 22 September 2004 through Victor and featured "Rise" as a bonus track.

All tracks are written by John Payne and Geoff Downes, except "Ghost in the Mirror" and "I Will Be There for You" written by Payne, Downes and Billy Sherwood.