Haste The Day

Dreamer

Written by: PP on 27/12/2008 15:06:54

Haste The Day's previous record "Pressure The Hinges" was a huge let down compared to their earlier material, but in reality it was one of the countless metalcore bands whose formula became stale after one or two albums of fantastic material. Because of this, most people had written Haste The Day off already, but it seems that on "Dreamer", they've managed to pull it (somewhat) back together and write some decent melodies that would've given the band instant mainstream success had this record been released back in 2003. The problem is that the general gist within the music industry is that metalcore is taking its final steps before the movement finally slows down to a crawl. When bands like Bullet For My Valentine made it to the big bucks, the genre was overflown with releases that all sounded alike, creating massive oversaturation and thus pushing bands like Haste The Day to the sidelines.

You see, Haste The Day's sound can be summarized as part Bullet For My Valentine (the main clean vocals), part Darkest Hour (the screamer kind of sounds like John Henry in places), and part "Shadows Are Security"-era As I Lay Dying. It's not that Haste The Day are terrible at what they are doing, their expression is just so anonymous, utilizing metalcore clichés all around (breakdown scream fests, catchy clean choruses) to the point that the band becomes the very example of generic metalcore itself. It's because of releases like "Dreamer" that metalcore died out, ones that have the technical prowess in order but fail in writing great songs overall. It's not that "Haunting" or "Mad Man" are bad as such, they just sound EXACTLY like every other metalcore song we've heard over the last five years.

Luckily for Haste The Day then, for every generic track on the album, there's an equally interesting one. "Resolve", for instance, sounds exactly how I would imagine As I Lay Dying to sound like if John Henry (Darkest Hour) was singing for them instead of Tim Lambesis. "Sons Of The Fallen Nation", one of the best songs on the record, has ridiculously catchy chorus, and especially the Punchline-type angst-filled, yet still cheerful clean vocal hits a bullseye. These are also the songs where Haste The Day sounds somewhat original, and surprise surprise, they are also at their best here. However, not all experimentation is good or fits the album. For example, what the hell is up with the piano-laden ballad "Labyrinth"? It's like straight off of Muse's "Absolution"!?

Overall, it's difficult to put a finger on exactly what Haste The Day do wrong, other than to pull out the "they are generic metalcore" card. Their songs are tightly executed (within reason) and they've got a couple of really catchy choruses, which should logically make "Dreamer" a great release. Maybe it's just me, but this type of sound is beginning to sound a bit dated as we are entering 2009...

5

Download: Sons Of The Fallen Nation, Resolve
For the fans of: Darkest Hour, As I Lay Dying, Bullet For My Valentine
Listen: Myspace

Release date 14.10.2008
Solid State

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