My fave part of any DGD release is the comment thread

"Its like if I went and reviewed a Chat Pile album. I think they're awful, I can't stand anything they put out."
do your background check and you'll see i vibe with a solid chunk of stuff this band have released including from tilian era. check a little further and you'll see that i've listened extensively to affiliated or adjacent artists i consider superior. if i thought this album deserved through analysis or a respectful register from literally any publication, i would have included them. i think it's uninspired dross and hate everything it stands for and do not consider it worth appraising in serious terms. that is my opinion. you do not have to agree. i do not care if you disagree and am not going to cater my opinion to your disagreement. i am 'biased' against the band in their present state because i think their music is the equivalent of a semiironic dick pic and have limited sympathy for their platform. i think it is the responsibility of any critic aware of concretely problematic artists to draw parallels between their known harmful traits and aspects of their creative expression. i do not think this is a radical position to arrive at. i do not think this automatically invalidates the value of whatever they make, but i do think that they turn material that would have been mediocre on its own terms (whatever the shit those are) very sour very fast. do i have to roleplay as your middle school english teacher any further or can you plz join the dots and clock that it's a real Choice for you to expect everyone else to consider this burnout act as deserving of critically garnished platitudes as you, based on your own otherwise reasonable opinion, seem to.

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

good comment

Yeah. One of the better comments I’ve seen lately

Album Rating: 3.5

It's definitely not their best. But Holy Ghost Spirit, Swallowed by Eternity, Die Another Day, Untitled / Cream of The Crop are excellent. It's definitely not a 1.5 album. A bit stale, yeah, but this is average at minimum.

Album Rating: 1.0

Thank you for this review, Johnny.

Album Rating: 2.5

Harsh but fair

Album Rating: 1.0

Yes, I often get that response 😌 100% satisfaction guaranteed!

Album Rating: 2.0

thank you for your service john nathan

Album Rating: 1.0

John Nathan

American translator

Album Rating: 3.0

i like the part where will swan goes weedly weedly weewoo

Cool review, but wtf is bandright?

Album Rating: 4.0

I do think this review is really harsh and seems very biased from the start, but I don't care that the score is low because... each to their own.

I think this album is better than Afterburner, because that album really is a slog and seemed extremely formulaic and honestly despite it's shorter length, is harder to get all the way through than this album. I mean, I can't lie and act like I'm not biased, I do like DGD and have been a fan since 2006-ish.



I agree that they've fallen into somewhat of a formula that seems to work for them when it comes to churning out material. I just think this is one of the better albums from them with Tilian. I've actually grown a bit weary on Tilian over the years and I liked him so much better in Tides Of Man, but... if you just want shreddy music that also happens to be poppy I think this is good, even if it might be a little bit TOO polished. But yeah, if they had another vocalist right now I think I would find their music even more fun again. Because as soon as Rob Damiani from Don Broco comes in on Synergy, I just start vibing instantly, but he's gone as fast as he entered which is a bummer.



Now, I'm gonna say that I'm probably more excited about the new Royal Coda album though.

Album Rating: 4.0

It's a challenge to sit through this whole thing

Album Rating: 2.0

loving the 1 comment accounts created just to defend dgd that have been popping up last few days

Album Rating: 2.0

Noticed that too, not just comments but ratings as well.

Album Rating: 2.0

Eidola positive-review bombed their first album and their frontman Andrew Wells is in DGD now? Connection?



Also you can hear Wells influence on some of these tracks - like DGD, Eidola has also been churning out the same formula for 3 albums.

eidola changed it up in a bad way. architect is nowhere near as grandiose or proggy as the two before (which already were far from perfect or anything since they waaaay too long lol). theyre j passable dgd lite now

Album Rating: 3.0

Hard not to agree with the assessment here. The fuckboi lyrics were definitely already awkward and tired, but have now unquestionably crossed over into cringeworthy and uncomfortable in the post-accusation era.



I had a discussion with my girlfriend about how it feels like, with every passing day, the fanbase will slowly let the accusations slide and Tilian will quietly walk back into the band a year from now like nothing happened. Which is a double shame because he's a piece of shit, and he feels like one of the members full phoning it in. In fact, this entire album feels like a clash between Tim, Matt, and Andrew trying to make something somewhat interesting and Jon at least changing it up a little bit, meanwhile Will and Tilian are churning out the most phoned in parts of their respective careers.



At least Will has the excuse of having spent the last decade churning out 7000 guitar riffs for 43 bands made up of ex-DGD members. I understand why he might not be creatively killing it right now, but what is Tilian's excuse? Plus, if that is the case why not put out a much shorter album with only the best ideas. This easily could have been another classic DGD palatable, albeit uninspired, 30-45 minute album instead of an hour long slog stuffed with more filler than a Boston Cream donut. It's hard to describe exactly why this album is the breaking point, but this band has been phoning it in for a while now and the music being "just fun" or "not taken seriously" isn't enough to make me look passed how boring it is anymore.



Granted when your diehard fanbase will not only listen to and turn out for literally anything you put out, but are so deep in it they'll easily forgive and forget Tilian having a clear pattern of using his position to sexually exploit the same fans that will bend over backward to defend him, why would they even try anymore?



The last line is spot on. Somebody needs to break this band so that they at least consider trying next time around. Apparently I had a lot more to say about this than I thought lol. This hour+ album has enough interesting bits to be a good, but not great 5-6 song EP at best.

Album Rating: 1.5

This is how I'd imagine ADHD would be as music, just too much going on, and I can't concentrate on anything. It's technically sound but jesus christ, allow the music to breathe. It's genuinely unbearable by the time it hits track 6. So much wasted talent here.