Daylight Dies – A Frail Becoming (2012)

Keeping up the genre started back in the day by bands like Paradise Lost, Opeth, Anathema, and Katatonia, today we have Daylight Dies and their latest exploits into the Melodic Death/Doom Metal areas. Since all of the previously mentioned band have moved on and play completely different music now compared to when they started, it is good to hear that Daylight Dies has not given into the ‘pressure’ of being more commercially friendly or ‘evolve’ as the other bands have eloquently called it.

If you never go to hear the legendary bands start this old ‘trend’, more recently we have Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, end others doing a killer job in keeping the flame alive and adding an extra level of technicality to the music. “A Frail Becoming” takes us back to the times when bands didn’t needed extreme acrobatic guitar sections or (too many) keyboards to create depressing atmospheres. Daylight Dies relies on solid and repetitive guitar work with the proper tuning and a heavy sense of melody, and of course the occasional intricate guitar solo here and there. The music also relies on a certain pace and excellent growls more recently mixed with a good dose of clean vocals, something that the band excels at.

Opening strong with “Infidel”, “The Pale Approach” and “Sunset”, this release gave us goose bumps at times since it reminded us a lot of the first few Katatonia albums, even the growls sound almost exactly the same. The riffing is top notch, just repetitive enough to get the listener into the track, a masterful tactic that many of the new bands completely fail to master, but Daylight Dies knows exactly when to stop or change.

The excellent “Dreaming Of Breathing” is one of the best tracks in this release thanks to the excellent atmospheric section in the middle created by a funky bass guitar line and excellent percussions. This would have been a perfect moment to bust out an all-out jazzy passage, but as-is it is actually pretty awesome. “A Final Vestige” and “Ghosting” reminded us a lot of the most recent Insomnium release and the brilliant combination of melancholic clean vocals and bursts of demoralizing growls paired with more melody that you can imagine.

“A Frail Becoming” is one of those releases that will bring you back to the old days of Melodic Death/Doom Metal in a very good way, it will also show you some glimpses of the more modern sounds that bands playing the same genre have crafted in the last few years. Being huge fans of said genre, we can totally vouch for Daylight Dies and recommend this release to the picky listeners of this kind of music. We can only the band keeps delivering albums like these, even if it means we have to wait four years for them.

Release: October 9th, 2012

Genre: Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Country: USA