DYSCORD: Dakota

Produced by Adam Spark and Dyscord

Released: 2008

Dyscord has made considerable waves on the Perth metal scene in the past few years, opening for a growing array of international visitors there and since making inroads in other parts of the country. I have heard Dyscord's material before and while they are undoubtedly a good and competent band capable of some crowd-pleasing moments I haven't exactly been blown away by them either. Unfortunately, their debut full length Dakota has done nothing to change that.

Comprising nine songs and a short interlude, this is in a lot of ways a pretty decent collection of aggressive metal. Dakota starts out on the right foot. A move from their earlier metalcore-ish sound toward a modern melodic death metal one is immediately apparent. "Noble on Paper" is a clear marker of this development, with a main riff directly out of the Gothenburg copy book. James Herbert's vocals mainly alternate between hardcore-ish shouts and death metal rumble, however a couple of times he does make the mistake of dropping in some clean vocal lines. These are, like those of so many others, quite weak (bordering on the embarrassing in the title track). Fortunately they're only used on two songs, but if singers are going to use them at all they need to go back ten years or so and see how people like Burton Bell and Devin Townsend made them so effective.

In all other respects, Dyscord has put together an album that maintains a remarkably consistent level throughout. In fact, Dakota probably suffers from being too consistent: Dyscord seems so constrained by the limitations of their stylistic delivery that they appear either unable or unwilling to go far beyond it, making for a bunch of songs that are increasingly indistinguishable from one another as the album progresses. The transition from the thirty-second "Treaty of Laramie" into "Masika and Haemon" was rather effective and the faster pace of "Haemon Unleashed" also set it apart. These three tracks evidently serve as something of a suite (but are missing from the booklet for some reason) and mark the album's high point. Elsewhere, Dakota has plenty of catchy moments but no clear stand outs and even after several listens I was struggling to remember much of it.

Musical ability certainly isn't lacking here and there's a level of energy and intensity that makes me think Dyscord would be awesome live, but they could profit from a little more inspiration to stop them getting lost among the tons of bands doing exactly this equally as well.

1. Noble on Paper
2. Dakota
3. The Clothes Maketh the Manslaughter
4. The Picador
5. Treaty of Laramie
6. Masika and Haemon
7. Haemon Unleashed
8. Hot Snakes McGillycuddy
9. An Ode to Envy
10. The Logical Conclusion

Rating: 68%