Dyscord - Dakota

Sat 13th Sep, 2008 in Music Reviews

This album looks like a solid metalcore album, but it surprised the shit out of me when I first put it on. The first track on this release by West Australian lads Dyscord, Noble on Paper, is absolutely killer. It blasted out of the speakers so heavily, that I had to listen to it again to make sure I’d heard it right. Your first reaction is “wow, old Berzerker!”, yet the style is somehow better, more raw and more enjoyable.

Dyscord play an interesting death/metalcore blend. But, after they prove that they can play fast with alacrity on the first couple of tracks, the release gets bogged down in metalcore and breaks. Having said that, the fact that they prove their ability early on with a more brutal style makes the slowed-down stuff not the chore it could be.

There is a fair bit of thrashy influence in the guitar work. A criticism I have of this release is that there are some parts of the guitars that are way too quiet; given that the guitarists in Dyscord clearly work hard, it’s disappointing to have some of the better work buried further down in the mix.

Standout moments on this release for me were the opening tracks; the intro to track four, their famous Picador, and track ten, The Logical Conclusion, which is full of early Cannibal Corpse -style rising licks and a full-on blast beat that is brilliantly executed. This band seems to have a bit of a penchant for your old blasting -something which always goes a long way with me if it’s well done, as it is here – and it would be good to see them evolve to get more and more brutal along this line. They have the ability and, if this release is any indication, they obviously enjoy it. There are overtones here of death, thrash, and grindcore among your metalcore elements, but it’s the more brutal stuff that gets my vote. Hopefully their next release showcases these elements a lot more. If it does, it will be a fantastic album.

Having seen this band live recently, I was surprised to see that they are far more brutal, and faster, recorded than they are live. A disappointment? Yes, a bit, but their set was only half an hour and if they’d played with more brutal bands, then no doubt their set-list would have reflected this.

Fans of early Cannibal Corpse will get into this release, anybody who likes a bit of blasting will enjoy those parts of it that blew me away, and metalcore fans will have a lot of material here to get their teeth into. It is a damn good debut full length, and hopefully Dyscord bring us more releases in the future that show them evolving to make the best use of their abilities.

Dyscord’s Dakota is out now on Prime Cuts Music.