Day into Night

“Day Into Night” is an album that’s immensely appealing on an aesthetic level. It’s fast, catchy, and full of creative riffs; certainly a “musician’s” album. The issue I hold with this album is that it does not live up to their debut at all, and though the riffs might be creative, they are essentially all based on the same type of Melothrash minor/harmonic minor scale riffage. Gone are the sweeping structures (minus “Dream“) and the narrative atmosphere that dominated the debut. In its place we have great production, fun and memorable riffs, all the right hooks in all the right places, but a huge void where the emotion and purpose of the first album once was. This album reminds me heavily of a much better version of ATG’s Slaughter of the Soul, which likewise, was an album that had all the right hooks in the all the right places, but was ultimately just a shallow effort to appease the common douchebag’s perception of a “good, melodic riff”.

I’ve already spoken of the structures a bit, but I’ll elaborate. Most of these songs are designed with one emotion in mind, one feeling, and the harmonies that the riffs perpetuate strive to explicate that emotion, usually with adequate results. However, this means that the flow of the album is heavily segmented and rough, “Day Into Night” is much more of a “Song by Song” record than an “Album”. Each song is good on its own, but part of the allure of an album is that it combines X amount of songs and synergizes them. “Day Into Night” utterly fails to do this. Even the connection between “Hunter/Killer” and “Hunter/Killer: Endgame” isn’t all that noticeable beyond the obvious naming of the tracks. So what we have are a collection of catchy songs (with some lemons like Let It Burn and I Believe) that don’t mean anything to each other, and are there just for the sake of being there.

As stated before, the production is great. Superb guitar tone, perfect-sounding drum kit, and an audible bass whom I’d like to hear from more often, but the low end presence is felt enough to warrant a thumbs up to the dude who mixed the album. This album is rather infamous for its lackluster vocals, the vocalist is extremely weak and sounds like he’s singing straight out of his throat, or more like talking with a bunch of ground up tortilla chips stuck in this throat. You do get used it, but that doesn’t change the fact that when I first heard this album four or so years ago I was like “Wow, he’s a horrible vocalist.” Once in a while you’ll hear him bellow, which is exponentially more effective with, so I’m rather confused as to why they didn’t have him employ that technique more often.

The songs themselves, however segregated and singular they may be, are composed with impeccable precision. Every note falls where it should and every note is the right note. But that’s the problem with this album; like “Slaughter of the Soul”, it’s so predictable that it becomes boring. To someone just getting into the scene, I have no doubt that this album will command their worship immediately, but once one desires something more complex or interesting than a multitude of harmonic and melodic clichés, there simply isn’t anything of substance for the listener to find. I would be a little too ignorant if I decided to ignore or omit the flashes of absolute brilliance that are present here though. “On The Shores of Ithaka” might suffer from clichéd melodies and scales, but it employs them to the maximum of their potential, not to mention this song is likely the least static one on the album. “Cadences of Absonance” is the only other song that truly follows a narrative structure, but it’s a weak song, “Night of the Roses” is rather pointless at thirty seven seconds, and “Dream” is an enjoyable instrumental, but nothing that will make you shit your pants.

Yanic Bercier’s performance deserves special mention here. He is one of the very few technically impressive drummers who doesn’t play like an egotistical prick and know when to shut the fuck up, when to accentuate, and when to blast in order to compliment the song instead of dictate it (*AHEM* Flo Mounier *AHEM*). I can’t help but dish out some respect for the dude for having the integrity to hold back on his skills in order to benefit the music as a whole instead of his own image as a drummer. I’ve always been a fan of his cymbal work, and he does some impressive stuff on this album as per usual. The guitar solos are for the most part superb in terms of what we conventionally expect out of a solo. They never show off, always manage to play at the right speed and end in the right places, not necessarily leaving the listener wanting more or wanting to press rewind because it wasn’t long enough, but leaving him with an immense sense of satisfaction. Bart Frydrychowicz certainly has an affinity for writing solos, and making the most out of melodic passages as possible, even if they are fundamentally boring.

So what do I do with this? “Day Into Night” has taken the most mundane ideas of harmony and melody and stretched them to their limits, resulting in something that is extremely listenable and accessible, but primordially flawed and ultimately generic. That’s where the line is drawn. “Forever” was anything but generic, “Day Into Night” may as well be the epitome of melodic death metal, the archetype of a trivial style. Does that make “Day Into Night” trivial? Or is it immune as an example of “how to do it correctly”? The issue is that while the album may serve as an archetypical exposition of melodic death metal, that doesn’t change the fact that underneath all its pretty leads, neat riffs, and catchiness, it’s still a peasant dressed up in a lord’s regalia. I’m giving lots of marks for the regalia, because DAMN is it ever attractive, but I’m well aware of the smelly peasant that lies beneath and dare not outstretch my hand far enough for him to clasp his grimy fingers around it.