Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion
Candlelight Records CDL267 - 07/03/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
Daylight Dies are one of those bands that burst out from nowhere, with their own sound, style and ideology fully realised and functioning. Now most bands tend to have at least an initial period of sounding like someone else, if not they sometimes spend their whole career aping some group or other. Daylight Dies neatly bypassed this and appeared fully formed on their debut release "No Reply", which although not opaque in its influences certainly was not contiguous with the act of jumping on any kind of bandwagon or conforming to any kind of scene ideals. Jesse Haff and company specialise in icy cold atmospheres and the kind of musical tundra one could easily get lost in for weeks at a time. Between the unique melodic structure that Barre Gambling manages to carve out, the emotional drumming of Haff, the rock solid low end of Egan O'Rourke and the brutal vocals of firstly Guthrie Iddings and lately Nathan Ellis, you get the feeling that hell actually has frozen over.
"Dismantling Devotion" kicks off with the epic "A Life Less Lived", initially exploring some quiet acoustic guitar and feedback laden textures before exploding into the kind of slow, dark melodicism that one comes to expect from this band. It becomes instantly clear that the band have not taken the easy exit here, pushing the envelope and driving their song structures and related factors further than that witnessed on "No Reply". "Dead Air" begins in a similar fashion with dark lead work and a subtle acoustic arpeggio, before exploding into a mass of complex dark riff and lead interplay which eschews all light in favour of the kind of tormented melodicism the band thrives on. Newcomer Nathan Ellis picks up right from where Guthrie left off, a brutal Opeth-esque growl his tool of the trade. His wild and vicious style offsetting the generally more melodic stylings of the band perfectly. Therein lies a clue to the true Daylight Dies aesthetic, at times extremity is in evidence but always with a sense of taste and a keen ear for the musical as opposed to ever being extreme for the sake of it.
"A Dream Resigned" kicks off with one of the more desperate sounding passages on the cd, the lead work really seeming to plead with the listener for a forlorn hope. Jesse Haff's drum work is as ever immensely solid and far more emotional sounding than the majority of extreme metal drummers manage to be. Similarly to Martin Lopez, one gets the impression that Haff exists for the song, always complementing the music and never getting in the way with pointless displays of overt musicianship. Not to say that he isn't a hugely talented drummer, but he possesses the taste and decency to let the songs speak for themselves and ride with them as opposed to riding over them. "Solitary Refinement" kicks off with a tortuous crawl, deeply reminiscent of latter day My Dying Bride in it's solemn majesty and graceful melancholy. Then something you really don't expect happens. Slight gleams of hope shine through the song somehow, giving glimpses of positivity that are ultimately dismantled by the continuing themes of sadness and despair. Moving on to the previously released (in demo format) "Lies that Bind", we get a more traditional Daylight Dies song with the unique thrashy rhythms that you'd expect coupling nicely with the Barre's talent for composing moving interplay between the rhythm and lead guitar parts. This song stands alone as a direct link to the "No Reply" album, but also fits perfectly into this new collection of songs, providing a continuity between two albums released quite a long time apart.
Once again Daylight Dies have delivered a wonderful collection of some of the darkest music you could ever want. The desperate themes of rejection, alienation and the like are present and correct and yet then band have clearly moved on and evolved from their previous release. "Dismantling Devotion" is a startlingly mature and refined album, at odds with an often petulant extreme metal scene, giving the listener a cerebral and intelligent journey into the emotional darkness from which their is likely to be no reprieve. I have no doubt that in time this album will come to be regarded as a true classic of the doom/death genre if not extreme music as a whole. Similarly to Opeth's "Morningrise" or My Dying Bride's "Turn Loose the Swans", the album serves as a defining stamp of what the band is truly about at this time, both truly progressive and yet fitting comfortably into the niche where it belongs.
9.5/10
UMs Review Rating Scale
The Official Daylight Dies Website
Candlelight Records USA Official Website
Candlelight Records CDL267 - 07/03/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
Daylight Dies are one of those bands that burst out from nowhere, with their own sound, style and ideology fully realised and functioning. Now most bands tend to have at least an initial period of sounding like someone else, if not they sometimes spend their whole career aping some group or other. Daylight Dies neatly bypassed this and appeared fully formed on their debut release "No Reply", which although not opaque in its influences certainly was not contiguous with the act of jumping on any kind of bandwagon or conforming to any kind of scene ideals. Jesse Haff and company specialise in icy cold atmospheres and the kind of musical tundra one could easily get lost in for weeks at a time. Between the unique melodic structure that Barre Gambling manages to carve out, the emotional drumming of Haff, the rock solid low end of Egan O'Rourke and the brutal vocals of firstly Guthrie Iddings and lately Nathan Ellis, you get the feeling that hell actually has frozen over.
"Dismantling Devotion" kicks off with the epic "A Life Less Lived", initially exploring some quiet acoustic guitar and feedback laden textures before exploding into the kind of slow, dark melodicism that one comes to expect from this band. It becomes instantly clear that the band have not taken the easy exit here, pushing the envelope and driving their song structures and related factors further than that witnessed on "No Reply". "Dead Air" begins in a similar fashion with dark lead work and a subtle acoustic arpeggio, before exploding into a mass of complex dark riff and lead interplay which eschews all light in favour of the kind of tormented melodicism the band thrives on. Newcomer Nathan Ellis picks up right from where Guthrie left off, a brutal Opeth-esque growl his tool of the trade. His wild and vicious style offsetting the generally more melodic stylings of the band perfectly. Therein lies a clue to the true Daylight Dies aesthetic, at times extremity is in evidence but always with a sense of taste and a keen ear for the musical as opposed to ever being extreme for the sake of it.
"A Dream Resigned" kicks off with one of the more desperate sounding passages on the cd, the lead work really seeming to plead with the listener for a forlorn hope. Jesse Haff's drum work is as ever immensely solid and far more emotional sounding than the majority of extreme metal drummers manage to be. Similarly to Martin Lopez, one gets the impression that Haff exists for the song, always complementing the music and never getting in the way with pointless displays of overt musicianship. Not to say that he isn't a hugely talented drummer, but he possesses the taste and decency to let the songs speak for themselves and ride with them as opposed to riding over them. "Solitary Refinement" kicks off with a tortuous crawl, deeply reminiscent of latter day My Dying Bride in it's solemn majesty and graceful melancholy. Then something you really don't expect happens. Slight gleams of hope shine through the song somehow, giving glimpses of positivity that are ultimately dismantled by the continuing themes of sadness and despair. Moving on to the previously released (in demo format) "Lies that Bind", we get a more traditional Daylight Dies song with the unique thrashy rhythms that you'd expect coupling nicely with the Barre's talent for composing moving interplay between the rhythm and lead guitar parts. This song stands alone as a direct link to the "No Reply" album, but also fits perfectly into this new collection of songs, providing a continuity between two albums released quite a long time apart.
Once again Daylight Dies have delivered a wonderful collection of some of the darkest music you could ever want. The desperate themes of rejection, alienation and the like are present and correct and yet then band have clearly moved on and evolved from their previous release. "Dismantling Devotion" is a startlingly mature and refined album, at odds with an often petulant extreme metal scene, giving the listener a cerebral and intelligent journey into the emotional darkness from which their is likely to be no reprieve. I have no doubt that in time this album will come to be regarded as a true classic of the doom/death genre if not extreme music as a whole. Similarly to Opeth's "Morningrise" or My Dying Bride's "Turn Loose the Swans", the album serves as a defining stamp of what the band is truly about at this time, both truly progressive and yet fitting comfortably into the niche where it belongs.
9.5/10
UMs Review Rating Scale
The Official Daylight Dies Website
Candlelight Records USA Official Website
