Daylight

The Difference In Good And Bad Dreams EP

Written by: PP on 29/03/2012 03:24:13

What a difference a few years can make. Last I checked out Daylight they were neck-deep in Hot Water Music inspired nostalgic punk on their excellent "Sinking" EP from 2009. Apparently I passed up on one release in between, but I haven't forgotten the instantly memorable, gravelly "speak up, I'll listen" roar that opened the record. Yet their newest EP, "The Difference In Good And Bad Dreams", is like night and day in comparison.

Gone are the gravelly, punk-fueled original post-hardcore tunes, the rumbling bass guitar and the coarse vocals. Instead, they have been replaced by elements that push Daylight into another genre altogether: they basically now sound like a mish-mash between the post-metallish post-hardcore of City Of Ships and the carefully constructed, progressive rock of Thrice circa in between "The Artist In The Ambulance" and "Vheissu", that is, a lost album that the band never wrote. "Hungry At A Funeral" and "Damp", for instance, use melody lines that should immediately draw your attention towards those two bands. They are coarse, but progressive in nature. Much depth and focus has been added to the songwriting in general. And when you reach album closer "In My Dreams", where Taylor Madison sounds almost note-by-note like Dustin Kensrue from a track like "Music Box", one has to wonder what happened to his Chuck Ragan style gravelly roar that caused a stir within the punk rock scene.

Indeed, based on this EP, there's not much punk left in Daylight. They've decided to drop the simplistic songwriting and focus on writing complex arrangements that simply aren't possible in punk rock, even in the more progressive corners of the genre. They go so far away from what I remember them sounding like that I had to triple check there simply wasn't another band called Daylight around. And you know what? I'm not sure it's for the better. Though the gravelly punk genre is extremely saturated, Daylight were one of the most promising bands in the genre. And with their new Thrice-esque expression, they simply aren't comparable to a band many consider to be one of the most important and timeless bands from the past decade or so.

Download: Hungry At A Funeral
For the fans of: City of Ships, Thrice meet Hot Water Music
Listen: Facebook

Release date 03.01.2012
Run For Cover Records

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