Review Summary: a well executed metalcore album that blends fun with technicality and ultimately ends up being the bands most focused and enjoyable
7 of 7 thought this review was well writtenDanza IIII: The Alpha - The Omega, the fifth installment in an almost exhausted library of party-core ideas, is a well executed metalcore album that blends fun with technicality and ultimately ends up being the bands most focused and enjoyable record to date. Now, it’s excusable to disregard
Danza IIII on pretense alone, because, Jesus, they’re called The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza,
and this album title is certainly superfluous, but surely your mother told you to never judge a book by its cover -- Even if that cover depicts an angel blowing bubbles beneath a skeleton smoke demon. Yes,
Danza IIII is an arduous listen plagued by bouts of monotony, sloppy instrumentation and grade school level subject matter, the opening to “Rudy X3” comes to mind (“You ever had a person in your life, like a so-called friend?, that every chance they had to do something malicious behind your back they did?, well this goes out to them”); however weaved between these frustrating moments/delays/complete detours, flutters a loose cannon primed with ideas bringing a schizophrenic bands’ imagination to the forefront of this often devastating attack.
Danza IIII unloads with a dizzying start with “Behind Those Eyes” pummeling its intro under layers of distortion and unstable bass fills. The track impressively circumvents pitfalls later found on the disc by letting it’s gorgeous ending supersede the majority of its running time. This is by far the greatest asset Tony Danza’s Tapdancing has. By latching onto its catchier, and ultimately, more digestible moments the band bring a welcomed rest to the almost intolerable segments of (seemingly) endless hammer downs. This is most obvious when “Disconnecting Pt. 1” dares shake its sexy groove and (gasp!) surreal ambiance into the mix before becoming ultimately LOUD NOISES as “This Cut Was the Deepest” enters. But these indecisive mixtures employed by the band only aid in their musical vocabulary as they show a concrete understanding of each techniques necessity, frontman Jessie Freeland, especially does an exceptional job of contrasting the effervescent synths placed within the title track and even more so on heavy hitters “Canadian Bacon” and “You Won’t”.
But all good things must come to an end. And then, maybe, start again. But they’ll end. Start again. Ultimately, end though. Maybe sta-. Imagine such a frustration. In fact,
Danza IIII might revel in such a quality, with its ungodly determination by insisting that new strings must be placed after each song is completed. And it’s such a shame because Tony Danza can groove with the best of them at times - “You Won’t” - and complex enough that eliminating almost half the albums length would have resulted in The Dillinger Escape Plan counting their blessings,
just to make sure all things were in order. For every “The Crossfire” there’s, what feels like, eleventeen hundred minutes of the same palm mute or distorted lead. All things considered, technicality will only take you so far, it’s what you do with that ability that makes the idea remarkable.
Danza IIII is laced with ideas that spark a want for more, but without a fire there’s no reason to make any noise just yet.
