Posted on: August 6, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Daylight Dies – Dismantling Devotion / 2007 Candlelight / 8 Tracks / http://www.daylightdies.com / http://www.candlelightrecordsusa.com /

Daylight Dies has a very subtly stated introduction to “Dismantling Devotion” that gives the resulting section of “Life Less Lived” that much more gravity. There is nothing in the way of vocals during the opening minutes of “Dismantling Devotion”, but this does not hinder Daylight Dies in the creation of a solid bit of current metal. This metal rests on earlier metal movements, and does not use grunge or nu-metal to fuel the resulting music. The only thing that seems to hold the band back from succeeding completely on the early stages of “Dismantling Devotion” has to be the dry vocals that attack listeners during every track on the disc.

As is the problem with a great many bands, there needs to be variation in the vocals just as there are with the instrumentation, lest the music present get stale. The band leads out from their “Dead Air” well, but another problem seems to present itself with the five and a half minute track “Dead Air”. This problem is that Daylight Dies does not come up with enough different material to fuel a track like “Dead Air”. The band does have a tremendous amount of hope to them, and this is present during “Dream Resigned”. Daylight Dies links their sound up with a more progressive meets Queensryche type of sound, and thus has more than enough derivations from the norm and styles that they can place into the mix to keep individuals interested throughout this seven and a half minute track.

Daylight Dies keeps things hopping with their “All We Had”, which continues the same linkages to the progressive and eighties metal sound. The same death metal type of vocals are present during this track, but the instrumentation is varied and impressive enough that it allows listeners to stick with the album. The band may never make it on anything larger than a summer tour series or Headbanger’s Ball, but the ability to make metalheads think as well as thrash around is a rare quality for a band to have in the current period. There could be a little bit more variation in the arrangements and the styles used during “Dismantling Devotion”, but Daylight Dies gives hope to fans that they will be able to change things up come the sequel to “Dismantling Devotion”. Simply put, wait until the band releases their next album and be impressed by that disc.

Top Tracks: Dream Resigned, Life Less Lived

Rating: 5.2/10

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