Thoughts on Dismantling Devotion

The new album is finally in my possession & I'm very excited to say that it was a great listen ! The title track "Dismantling Devotion" is a great way to end the album. I love stuff like that. "Dead Air" & "Solitary Refinement" round out my top 3 for the record. This may change after I spend the rest of my day listening to the album over & over again. Congrats to you guys & I wish you much success.
 
Let it be clear before starting my review: Daylight Dies has probably become with this album nothing but my favourite band. Please note this is not the assertion of a teenager whch has discovred music last year through MTV. I'm 29 and have been listening to dark music since i'm 16 or so. And seldom has a band reached so deeply what I actually feel inside each second of my life.

About feelings....
Dismantling Devotion deals about everything that brightens and ruins my existence...
The first listenings were overwhelmed by a sense of suffering throughout the album. Parts that I could find "catchy" in the previous releases have vanished. All is done to create a terrifying dark impact on the listener.
The melodic lines, the acoustic arpeggios sounds totally hopeless; Vocals are filled with suffering and hatred. And you soon feel like being desperately in need of breathe because of the oppressive feelings that pours out of each harmonies of this album.
You've never been so close from the perfect musical expression of what "resignation" is all about. The music tends to bring you to give up, to resign, ans clearly invites you to fall once for all.
And that's the moment, when all seems lost, that a brightful luminous part arrives, giving you the strength to rise and to go on, again, and again. This "please fall, you'll soon rise" feeling is mastered like no band has managed before. You soon find pleasure in waiting for these moments of relief and lull.
There is no weak moment in your album, no riffs that could sound too long. Everything just flows without a break.

About musicianship...
Dismantling Devotion has made me up with complex rythmics. In the last few years, I've lost interest and pleasure in the race for rythmic perplexity some bands has devoted to. It's just like "Look, I'm building the ultimate most chaotic riff in the world". And this demonstration of technicity has almost disgusted me of death metal actually.
With Dismantling Devotion, there is complex rythmical parts, but they just reach what they should always aim at: Efficiency. "Strive to see" is an incredible song, and has progressively grown to become my favourite track of the album. This riff at 3.30, is one of my finest moment in the album.
The bass brings its power of melodicity to the whole, and always participate to the dark harmony of a song.
The rythm guitars riffs often melt sharp parts with disharmonic arpeggios, which is quite effective.
The lead guitars always get the perfect effect. The velocity is used advisedly. The use of larsens (is it the english word?) is more discontinuous than on 'No Reply', where it was often used as a way to make a transition between two riffs. On this album, these transitions are more built rythmically, which shows the neverending skills of the composers.
The clean vocals really brings something new to your sound. "Solitary refinement" shows the intelligence of its use. (by the way Am I the only one hear who've heard David Sylvian feeling on the very first sung words ????)
As I've already told before, harsh vocals are filled with hatred and suffering, and are truly moving in the sincerity that emanates from it.

About the artwork
Awesome because of the multiplicity of personal interpretations you can get of each picture. Congratulations to Jeff Brubaker for his photographic skills. The picture illustrating "Dismantling Devotion" is my favourite one. Waiting for a poster of that one !

About the final track "Dismantling Devotion"
Just one more sentence: I can die without remorse after having heard such music:
A song to cry upon
A song to die upon,
A song to think upon,
A song to hope upon.

Thanks to all of you once again ! You made my day (or year, or life or whatever it will last) with Dismantling Devotion.

I will come back again in 5 years, when I will find default to this offering.
 
Lull -- I sincerely appreciate your in depth opinions on the album and it's flattering (to say the least) to read what you've said. I've been looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the album, not only being a long-time supporter of the band but being a fellow musician with highly developed and sophisticated tastes in the realms of dark music and beyond. So -- thank you.

Keep it coming everyone...
 
Got it this morning, thanks for the speedy service Jesse. Listened to it twice so far, and it's a remarkable improvement upon No Reply which was already superb. The songs are very dark and oppressing, but still offers a breath of fresh air to the listener. Brilliant songwriting, and the new vocalist is superb. Props to your drumming also, it never gets boring.
 
Yo. Just thought I'd let you know that I saw a copy of Dismantling Devotion in my local HMV. I live in Jersey (an independent little island [9x5 miles] off the coast of france) which only has one,pretty small, record store, so I think its quite impressive that a copy of your album made it here! This can only mean good things.
 
God you guys rock.
Seriously...
Jesse, Barre, Nathan, Egan, and Charlie...
This masterpiece called 'Dismantling Devotion' has become my new favorite album. It simply blows me away.
Looking forward to your future works of art.

-Mike Keyser
 
I didn't think that the vocal style matched the music in the first 4 tracks. I also couldn't make out very many of the words that were sung so why bother...The vocals on track 5 would make the first 4 tracks so much better. They did work fine on track 6 since it is a more aggressive song plus they seemed a little deeper...
 
Here it goes my first reply, what to say about Daylight Dies and Dismantling Devotions?
Maybe that i never found a band that i could identify so much,the feelings, emotions they keep on coming!
To me this may be the album of the year, at the first time i listened to it, i kind of stood by with No Reply, wich has become one of the albuns of my life, but now nothing is certain, Desmantling Devotions is making his way,the title song can put tears on my eyes... i hope that it will receive the full recognizement that deserves, it truly is a masterpiece ,and trust me ,it will take to places that you never dreamt of...
For all this i sincerelly thank Daylight Dies for providing something so Beautiful...
 
Just gave it its first spin... I like the mini and "No Reply" very much. And to be honest, I haven't got that great feeling when hearing the new one. I'll try some more spins, must be a grower. All melodies seem to be so alike this time.
 
yeah I finally managed to order Dismantling Devotion:) and I'm quite proud of myself:] it came yesterday... brilliant work... every song is so perfect. and the album cover is just amazing.

in Poland the cd costs 67zl (about 21$)... damn, quite expencive (for us, Polish people:])... but it was worth it.

Dismantling Devotion is the best album i've ever heard... keep up the goot work!