Review Summary: The very embodiment of despair, Daylight Dies mix of melodic, melancholic; doom metal is a winning formula for success.
Within each one of us lies the need to explain the dark emotions which occasionally seep into our everyday lives. We all use something to either reject and defeat these emotions, or embrace and use them to build strength of character. For some, such as myself, music is the ultimate way to express and use these “negative” emotions to our advantage. From the negative, the darkest of emotions within us, we can create beauty and transform despair into hope. then there are bands such as
Daylight Dies who create self described ‘melancholic metal’ equal parts doom and death metal with some fresh elements thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.
No reply is
Daylight Dies first studio album and the only one to feature vocalist Guthrie Iddings. Iddings does a decent job vocally however we have all heard the screams before. There is little to no variety and the lack of cleans which later showcase themselves on the bands follow-up records detract from the overall album. Vocally, Nathan Ellis (vocalist on the latest studio albums, dismantling devotion and lost to the living) does a much better job although I suspect a lot of that might owe to better production and mixing.
Opening track
The Line That Divides opens with a haunting clean passage tinged with delay and overlayed with feeback. When the drums, vocals and bass kick in, the despair of the music is readily apparent. Double bass is featured briefly throughout the song and clean passages are interspersed throughout. Brief simple solos and leads are spaced in every song and add to the variety and complexity of each song.
What sets
Daylight Dies apart from other bands is the simulataneous usage of clean and distorted guitars. The clean riffs which float beneath the harsh distorted licks, add that extra bit of emotion and variety to every track. Much like Opeth,
iDaylight Dies utilize a mix of beauty and brutality within the music which is intriguing and captivating. In terms of drumming, Jesse Haff is a very versatile drummer, while primarily sticking to the slower 4/4 time signatures, he switches things up enough to keep thing fresh. The fills and double bass keep you alert and never at risk of falling asleep.
This album, like many others, contains a few flaws. The production quality isn’t up to par. It sounds muddy and muffled at times. The mixing isn’t quite right as the bass can barely be heard throughout the album and vocalist Iddings screams seem to be quieter than everything else. The guitars hold sway over everything and for those who play guitar this is a good thing. The vocalist of any band however leads the band and Iddings simply does a sufficient job, nothing more, nothing less.
As I despise track-by-track reviews, I will not go into such an analysis. There are certain songs which stand out however.
Four Corners features some interesting leads throughout and fantastic drumming which deviates from the doom metal structures mainly used throughout the album. This is the song on the album which has the most variety, the greatest variance.
In The Silence, primarily a softer song which contains some heavier parts throughout is slower and the spoken word parts are definitely not for everyone. However the song picks up and continually changes making this song one of the best off of the record.
Daylight Dies have captivated many of their fans attention with the sincere and honest music presented. While
Dismantling Devotion and
Lost To The Living are absolutely superior records,
No Reply is a worthy addition to your collection. The next time a violent storm rolls through your area, turn this record on and enjoy the introspective feelings which accompany it.
you should check it out, it's pretty decent
