Search - Daylight Dies :: No Reply

Solid American Death Metal

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 04/17/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"No Reply was the first full-length album from North Carolina's own Daylight Dies. The band sound merged elements of melodic death metal in the vein of bands like In Flames and Dark Tranquility, with Katatonia and My Dying Bride style doom. They are one of the few American bands that manage to play this kind of music well.



No Reply is powerful, melodic, and brutal...just what you expect from death metal. It's also melancholy and heavy enough to appeal to doom fans. If you're a fan of In Flames, Dark Tranquility, Katatonia, Anathema, and similar bands, you'll want to see what Daylight Dies has to offer, and No Reply is a great place to start. I think you will be pleasantly surprised."

Complex melancholy

Jason P. Sorens | Tonawanda, NY United States | 10/02/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"On "No Reply" Daylight Dies capitalizes on the buzz created by their "Idle" EP/demo and shows the world what American metal can be. Daylight Dies play melancholic, fairly doomy - but not ultra-slow - death metal. It is melodic and atmospheric music, with cascading guitar riffs and fluid leads. The vocals are imposing growls in the Mikael Akerfeldt tradition. If anything, "No Reply" is a little more doomy and less focused on guitar melodies than "Idle," but you can still find some nifty guitar solos on songs like "I Wait" and "In the Silence." Some of the riffs on this album are noticeably more technical than their previous stuff. "Unending Waves" from "Idle" has been rerecorded and placed on "No Reply"; in my view this is still Daylight Dies' greatest song ever.The intricate piano interludes from Idle are not present here, though the morose, contemplative "Back in the World" instrumental does make effective use of the piano.One person has said to me that Daylight Dies sounds too much like Katatonia, but I don't see it. In general atmosphere they are similar, but Daylight Dies does not use that distinctive style of riffing pioneered by Blackheim and thus sounds less like Katatonia than does Rapture, for example.This is overall a fascinating and complex piece of art - there is really a lot going on here, and even if you are not a fan of doom, Daylight Dies is well worth checking out. The jacket artwork consists of contemporary still-life scenes, providing a less foreign feel to a music that by and large sounds surprisingly European."

Not the most original, but i really like it

Justin | New Jersey | 05/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"well i might give this album more of a 4.75, as it is not exactly perfect, but i have really liked it since i got it about two years ago. the best part of this album is the use of guitar leads, many of them brilliantly written and played, creating a very emotional and desolate atmosphere. whether or not daylight dies is doom metal or not seems to be up to debate; most people say they are not doom metal, but they do sound similar to some of the faster death/doom bands. the vocals are growled in the rapsy medium range death style, and the lyrics are quite depressed, but without any romantic content sometimes associated with death/doom. i suppose this album does sound a fair amount like early katatonia, maybe some of november's doom's stuff, but it does retain its own identity with the use of Swedish sounding melodic death portions and of course those guitar leads. the best song here in my opinion is 'I Wait,' with a lead that has never left me since i first heard it a while back. 'Back in the World' is the only non-metal track, a piano song that is rather good and atmospheric. i suppose some might be skeptical to get into this band because of their association with Swedish sounding death metal, but they really don't sound like in flames at all, at least not atmosphericaly. while this isn't up there with evoken and skepticism, it is well worth getting."