Within the first minute of Daysend’s Metal Blade release Severance I was interested. Not blown away mind you, but a bit intrigued because of their production finesse that resulted in a crisp, crystal clear sound. The music follows the current trend of blending melodic modern metal with hardcore while using classic metal guitar leads and solos. Imagine Atreyu, but at an elevated level and with a higher touch of class.
Utilizing technical riffs and skillful change-ups adds complexity from track to track without falling over themselves into a mesh of confusing pieces, which many bands do, causing you to lose interest. Simon Calabrese’s vocals are powerful all the way through, having a good range of melody and guttural screams while Aaron Bilbija, one of the co-founders of Daysend, works the guitar leads with ease. I’m not a big fan of classic metal solos, but they are impressive nonetheless.
Two of my favorite tracks on the disk were “The Blood of Angels” and “Sibling” for the most basic reason: they were outright rockers. Reading through the inlay card, the lyrics are insightful and non-standard, and at no point during the album did I cringe at anything contrived, which is rare in listening to new music.
Daysend is from Australia, and according to the press, most Aussie’s support American and European music more often. Daysend is one of the rare bands that receive accolades from their homeland, even though they are on an American label. The most impressive thing about this band is their determination, so play ‘em under any and all circumstances.
Get this: their singer left just days before their first Australian tour and rather than throwing away all the hard work, the band did their first tour completely as instrumental sets. That’s balls my friend, and it’s worked.
