These guys offer up some interesting work on this record. It's much better than their debut EP, and the band has basically progressed exactly how I had hoped they would. The packaging kind of makes it come off like a typical contemporary metalcore record, but nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, the songs are all quite chilled out, with softly sung vocals, laidback percussion and basslines, and lots of lush guitars with plenty of effects to give things kind of a flowing quality. Synths are even used at times to thicken things up and add even more texture to the material, and they pull it off pretty well since the mix is quite thick and cohesive. The drums pop out a little much (though they sound very nice), and I wish the basslines were more prominent since the bass tone is wonderful, but I like the recording nonetheless. All of the tones work perfectly for this brand of music, I just think the mix needs work. The vocals can get loud as well, but rather than distracting, some of these unbalances simply cause the guitars to fall back and lose some detail, which is unfortunate. It's not a big deal, though. The songs work despite these minor technical issues. The band has been compared to Codeseven, and I would agree with that, because they came to my mind upon the first listen too, despite the fact that I think Dearly Departed tends to be a bit more organic and consistent (which is a positive trait in this instance). It's very much true that with average running times of more than five minutes and a total length of nearly an hour the record can be a little much to take in one sitting, but the consistency of atmosphere and use of tactful repetition in the tracks really does create a smooth transition from song to song, so it's surprisingly effective as a whole. "Shall I Play Them for You?" tends to get a bit louder with its use of distortion to contrast all of the chilled out dynamics, with the vocals becoming far more emotional and powerful during the chorus; while "All in Favor" brings in acoustic guitars and a lot of droning textures that are very nice, and those droning elements continue in the excellent "Shadowcasting", which has another powerful vocal performance and a heavier drive to its distorted rhythms with pulsing basslines and screaming background vocals. "I Reserve the Right to Scream Bloody Murder" is the shortest track and also posseses one of the more impressive choruses, sticking to the format of becoming a little louder and more forceful vocally, adding some killer drum fills for added measure. Seven-minute closer "Match Made in Heaven" opens very softly with thick percussion and more abstract musical/vocal tones than elsewhere, very slowly building up and dropping back over time with some creative synth elements playing a larger role. Very nice. There's an unlisted instrumental piece at the end of the disc, which is somewhat unnecessary if you ask me, but its four minutes of ambient guitar experimentation and more abstract appearance isn't bad. The packaging is a tossup, though. The text is really tiny and sort of blurry, just a tad, so it's not crisp enough to read comfortably (some of it is barely legible at all), and I don't like the outer packaging so much at all. There's a ton of really nice black and white photography inside though, and some of the text arrangement ideas are cool, so they were coming close, but they didn't nail it. I kind of thought the lyrics were sort of typical in subject matter, but I was quite mistaken. An email I got from the vocalist says it best, calling the record "the tale of a slowly eroding sociopath caught between the plastic nuclear marriage and life he has built for himself and the reality that nothing is at all what he thought it would be. Thus the mental and social deterioration begins..." Which is actually a pretty interesting concept, and one more befitting of the music than my incorrect assessments. But overall the layout should still look far more attractive in my opinion, because the music is infinitely stronger and more intriguing than what the visual accompaniment would suggest. This is good stuff. I definitely think this band could be pretty huge if they hit the right hands. This is a very strong set of songs, and I'm looking forward to hearing more. Sadly, I believe the band has recently dissolved, apparently playing their final show some three weeks ago, which is a true shame...
[One Day Savior]
Running time - 53:12, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Shall I Play Them for You?, Shadowcasting, Match Made in Heaven]
One Day Savior Recordings - http://www.onedaysavior.com
