Dark New Day – Twelve Year Silence / 2005 Warner Bros. / 11 Tracks / http://www.darknewday.com / http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com / Reviewed 10 May 2005

Dark New Day is the first all-star band of the new millennium. Featuring members of Creed, Skrape, and Sevendust, I really had no idea what to expect from these kids. “Follow the Sun Down”, the last track on the disc, mix equal parts Three Days Grace and Papa Roach. The track seems to be stoner-rock that could draw a direct lineage back to the mid-nineties releases of Kyuss and Corrosion of Conformity. The first track on “Twelve Year Silence”, seems to be much more in the vein of those involved. Shrill guitars mixed with screamed-out vocals and a heavy low-end, in what could only be radio fodder. The guitar work on this disc comes to some serious fruition, not necessarily being the most amazing in technicality but some of the most brutal in heaviness. The multiple-vocals of the band on “Brother” provide an echo to the track that only makes the chorus seem deeper.

Assaulting listeners in two different ways are the guitarists for Dark New Day, Troy and Clint. There seems to be more division than unity shown by the guitar work on this disc, something that by and large works in Dark New Day’s favor. It almost seems to be a division of labor, as every member of this quintet seems to have a specific position. The three bears analogy seems to be the most proper here, as the chugging bass of Corey seems much too heavy while the shrill guitars that play above the tracks is merely a trifle. The chunky yet airy guitars placed in the middle of most of the tracks provides a lifeline to any listener who may get lost in the amazingly deep tracks on “Twelve Year Silence”.

Instead of just aping bands like Disturbed, which seemed to be a trend for the last five years of new-rock, Dark New Day looks well behind the late nineties and takes up the standards of Slayer, Iron Maiden while still assimilating sections of the post-Disturbed music scene to make a vital and ever-lively style of music. Hell, “Bare Bones” even has some of the darkness and brooding that made Queensryche’s “Operation Mindcrime” such a perfect album at the end of the eighties. This is by no means a band one can write off as just another face in the crowd, and Dark New Day has the future of rock written in their name – a dark, new day that will bring freshness into what has become largely stale.

Top Tracks: Bare Bones, Lean

Rating: 7.3/10