Multigenre progressive metalcore band Dayseeker redefines and matures their sound with a new impassioned and neon-hued full release, Dark Sun.
Bands like Dayseeker have always been a prime embodiment of what a band can accomplish and be in the current century of rock music. Unbound by the genres placed within the music industry and consistently finding ways to utilize them to their advantage with each release, Dayseeker is a band that exists outside the confines of genre boundaries and makes music solely for the reason of making it. This is ever present with their new full release, Dark Sun. A culmination of mesmerizing hard rock, post-pop, experimental indie, and alternative R&B, Dayseeker makes a bold statement that it's not the genre you are in that makes the music great, it's the talent you have to produce it that makes it so.
"Dream-like acoustic experience, "Paper Heart" conveys a beautifully broken experience lyrically yet instrumentally shows a sense of someone trapped in a state of emotional limbo. Dayseeker has always been inventive with ways of displaying the same emotion in a multitude of different ways. On many of these tracks, the band succeeds at doing this, none feeling forced or drifting away from their sound, just being genuine about who they are as a band."
Dark Sun blooms with a glistening but aggressive introductory experience, "Dreamstate." Beautifully instrumentally engaging with intimately tied lyricism to match, it gorgeously dances into the next emotional highlight on the record, "Neon Grave."
A passionate moment on the album that opens up about vocalist Rory Rodriguez's close relationship with his father and his heartbreaking passing, "Neon Grave" shows a dynamic side to the album that is grief-stricken yet also possesses an intense presence instrumentally.
The celestial energy continues with the single, "Without Me." Maintaining a trademark dissonant vocal control throughout the track as it intermingles with the warm melancholic neon instrumental afterglow energy, Dayseeker continues to show their impressive handling of emotional fortitude in many different ways throughout the record.
A contrasting point of interest, "Homesick," is creatively bold and energetically uplifting soundscape-wise, but a welcome distraction. Keeping things lighthearted after a lot of heavy energy at this point, it's a nice change of pace without losing its narrative footing on the album.
Heavy energies return with "Midnight Eternal" and "Dark Sun." Emotionally charged but more evolved than the last half of the record, Dayseeker finds a way to dazzle us at every turn atmospherically yet still conveys the same heart-paining emotive response we got since the beginning.
Dream-like acoustic experience, "Paper Heart" conveys a beautifully broken experience lyrically yet instrumentally shows a sense of someone trapped in a state of emotional limbo. Dayseeker has always been inventive with ways of displaying the same emotion in a multitude of different ways. On many of these tracks, the band succeeds at doing this, none feeling forced or drifting away from their sound, just being genuine about who they are as a band.
"Parallel" hits very hard as a second-to-last track. A tear-jerker at best and in many ways is a mature and profound display of why Dayseeker is one of the best in the genre, it's the perfect segue to the finale "Aferglow (Hazel's Song)."
A heartfelt and delicate finale dedicated to Rory Rodriguez's daughter to not forget him when he is gone, both emotional heavy-hitters end the record on a phenomenal note.
Dark Sun is a challenging and, at times, painful record to listen through emotionally, despite a few inspiriting moments and the gorgeous amount of atmospheric and instrumental attention to detail. It's also what makes this record one of their best to date. With poignant lyricism backed with hypnotic crystallized cadence, stunning vocal work, gravid guitar, and percussive energies, Dark Sun is an album Dayseeker will be remembered for fondly for a long time.