Photo courtesy of The Weeknd Facebook

As 2011 comes to a close, the Weekend has made good on his promise to drop the final installment in his free mixtape trilogy. Titled Echoes of Silence, it’s a dark, dreamy and openly erotic adventure, with Abel Tesfaye, the Toronto-based voice behind the project, kicking things off with an intense cover of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” (which has less-than-cryptically been re-titled as “D. D.”). The tape’s other early stand-out is “The Fall,” an epic, slow-building song that’s produced by experimental hip-hop producer Clams Casino and features Tesfaye proclaiming “I’m a star” before going on to defiantly sing, “I ain’t scared of the fall.”

While it doesn’t quite hit with the sultry, electronic impact of House Of Balloons, Echoes is more than up there with his second offering Thursday, even without a vocal cameo from fellow Canadian artist Drake on “The Zone.” His site has crashed already from those hungry masses seeking this out, which only drives home the point that the Weeknd’s brand of lo-fi, hazey R&B is here for the long haul. [Download via The Weeknd.com]