by Morgan Y. Evans
LINKS:
Of all the great down tempo and gloom channeling acts these days, North Carolina’s Daylight Dies are perhaps the most promising. Only three albums into their career and the band reeks of total commitment, like they all know this is what they were meant to be doing and will (hopefully) continue to do. Their Relapse debut No Reply turned heads in 2002 and was soon followed by the already classic, morose and compelling Dismantling Devotion, a sonic exercise in pain excavation. If those were intriguing releases that will surely stand the test of time, the new Lost to the Living on Candlelight Records is something even greater. This could be a career defining moment for Daylight Dies, a band who have already toured with the likes of Portugal’s horsemen of the apocalypse, Moonspell, and Lacuna Coil (to name a few). Now Daylight Dies are on the road with none other than Candlemass on that band’s first U.S. tour in just shy of two decades! What an honor of an opening slot!
Fact is, Daylight Dies deserve all this and more. Lost to the Living is an all-encompassing, truly landmark album for the genre that people will be talking about for years. You can listen to one track and feel completely consumed, enveloped in a cocoon of esophagus ripping screams, outstanding and moody guitar waves and somber shifts and tempos that stay thrilling even in the quieter moments. This is a band playing their lives. Much to the chagrin of many half-assed bands who want to get over, Daylight Dies are one of those acts that cut through the veil of mediocrity that people too often settle for and undeniably tear your head off. And, to make matters even better, they aren’t just mindless bashers. While that can be fun when you want it, this is more a thoughtful and potent brew from a band that will and should not be ignored. Fuck doing it for their career, even! Be selfish, listeners! You should not ignore this great chance to toke up and sit in a dark room listening to Lost to the Living at least once. Believe me, your life will glide before your eyes!
I talked to guitarist Barre Gambling about the new record and how they manage to play such amazing, emotionally dark and feverishly brooding rock on a daily basis.
MORGAN Y. EVANS: You had a song called “A Life Less Lived” on the previous album Dismantling Devotion and the new, top notch record is called Lost to the Living. One makes me think of when you still have a chance in life to do something you haven’t fulfilled (like burying the hatchet with someone or skydiving or whatever the fuck) versus the new album name which calls to my mind once it is too late. Like, regrets of unsaid things to a departed person, for example. What are your feelings on this?
BARRE GAMBLING: We kicked around many titles before discovering the combination of “dismantling” and “devotion”, and it was quickly obvious that we had created a new phrase that could serve well as a title, combining the cold and harsh with the tender and personal. These are two sides of the same coin in our music, both exist in some fluctuating measure. “Lost to the Living” was suggested as a title for the new album, after the songs were written, and was recognized as a classy and classic sounding idea. I interpret the phrase as an opening for listeners to see for themselves if this music, lyrics and imagery is indeed lost “on” the living, or not.
MYE: Your music is so controlled and yet still has shit hot metal solos and just great textures, dips and swells, but the guitars are not just blazing leads, and riffs also propel the songs melodically. That’s why I loved solos in the band The Jesus Lizard, not straight up metal, but it propelled songs in a weird way. It adds depth. I wish more metal bands had the skill to master that and mix elements like Daylight Dies. The end of “And a Slow Surrender” and parts of the first new single “A Portrait In White” are perfect examples. Three albums in and you’ve perfected it!
BG: Thanks
for the kind words. It’s my belief that strong emotive riffs and
melodies carry the song and make it what it is, and the flashy metal solos
and super technical riffs have their place too, as secondary elements.
Too many notes tend to muddle the impact of all the notes, whereas fewer
have to count for more. As you may have guessed, I'm not real into Dream
Theater. The goal of DD in a song is to create an atmosphere, be it depression,
dread, creeped out, blissful release of dark energies, etc. There are
many brushes used to paint each picture, being the swells, delay effects,
solos, big chords, acoustics, cleans, as well as the variety of drum work,
vocal approaches, and bass melodies.
MYE: There’s many great bands in metal and even
lesser known ones like Drug Honkey [who play death mixed with dub to great
effect!], but with Daylight Dies the mood is steered by the band and yet
it also retains an exciting controlled grace, not lacking in interest
because it is less chaotic than some other genres of metal. Agalloch is
another recent band amazing at that. It’s powerful. Your brand new
song “A Portrait In White” marches on and has melodic changes
that have slightly uplifting chords thrown in here and there but in the
context of a dark march and never so much that it becomes a cheesy flash
pods type moment, rather, unpredictable yet epic. Or “Cathedral”
, when it gets heavier first in the beginning there’s a descending
chord shift in the main theme. “Cathedral” is mind blowing!
BG: I'll be sure to check out Drug Honkey. I try to write jarring guitar riffs that still retain a melodic continuity. Riffs to sink into but can still kick some ass live. All our musicians have their roots in more aggressive bands, we've all played in bands with blast beats at some point in time, but the evolution of Daylight Dies dictated a different path and we went with it. That might explain the “controlled” element to our sound.
MYE: Many of your songs seem to examine depression at the root. There is a comforting side of your music that some of the best gloom metal and the blues excel at giving back to people in need of it in their lives. Daylight Dies songs are big and you can wrap yourself in the guitars like a blanket. Some people bury themselves in grief via music like that and can let go if they have lots of depression, but for the majority I think a band like you is so helpful and help show how to carry grief rather than succumb to it. Acid Bath were another great example. I had a drug problem years ago and after I kicked I would listen to Acid Bath in quiet places or a graveyard as a pre-twenty-something and it helped me find my way back. Your band would’ve been extremely welcome also to my twenty-year-old self.
BG: I first realized our music meant something to some people outside the band when a guy approached me in 2003 at the Relapse Contamination Fest. He said No Reply helped him though a really hard time. Since then I've heard similar things from a few others. I met a girl who told me she lived in a car for a few months and listened to Dismantling Devotion everyday, and it helped her through the situation. I've felt the same way about listening to Ride the Lightning and [Katatonia’s] Brave Murder Day. Dark music is the most therapeutic medicine on earth for music freaks like us.
MYE: Amen! I saw on your website, some very funny video blogs on making the album and also an older one from last year when you made Daylight Dies beer. I remember the Melvins made Melvins meat once, like Spam, which is nasty.! But what was your beer like? Rather, what type of beer. I love India Pale Ales. Clint Eastwood made Pale Rider Ale and now I wanna try that and Daylight Dies beer the most, more than Maynard Keenan’s wine. You guys made it look like it was some good stuff that really worked. [laughing]
BG: We've made 3 batches of Daylight Dies beer, one with our ancient "Long Forgotten demo" art, and 2 more with our logo and skull and crossbones. They were nut brown ales, and yes they were delicious.
MYE: You should bring them to England! They love a good Brown ale.
BG: Freshly brewed beer is another level of goodness, not commonly enjoyed in our supermarket world. We made them in small batches of 5 cases each, funded by ourselves and close friends, and consumed immediately by the same.
MYE: [laughing] You are touring with Candlemass on their first tour of the US in 17 years! How do you handle that kind of an opening slot? You’ve already held it down alongside Moonspell and legends like Emperor. How does it feel to be a part of such esteemed bands' tours and to have your own career growing? It must be amazing to get to see the reaction from fans as your music takes hold and is absorbed into their consciousness/understanding.
BG: It’s an honor and a privilege to meet the great bands we've met during our music adventures. Talking to those people and seeing them play nightly was and is unforgettable, and possibly the biggest reward in this whole game. In addition to the bands you mentioned, I've seen Katatonia play almost 40 times now. We opened for Lacuna Coil in 2003 before they blew up, nice people. As far as audience reaction, the facial expression of being mesmerized by our music and the expression of boredom look similar from the stage, but its great to meet people after the show, that tends to be where the audience lets you know how they feel.
MYE: I remember I met someone in your band a few years ago, briefly, when you were playing upstairs at the Trocadero venue in Philly for that Relapse Records Contamination Fest, and you were pretty chill. You seem like funny characters but also produce some of the most thought provoking music around. It must be intense to channel something like the new “Last Alone” or the tune “Solitary Refinement”, a song with a title that makes me think of either appreciating solitary times to think or maybe in a bad light, alienating people to the point where you have refined being alone. I guess the question is, how do you play some of these songs with powerful moods like “Dismantling Devotion” (about relationships disintegrating) and still stay kind of healthy in your headspace? Is it all from putting it into the music?
BG: That’s cool we met at that fest! We joke a lot as a band, and we have fun on tours. When we play, it’s about playing well and putting energy into the stage show so I don't think about the lyrical content, but sometimes the riffs themselves carry emotional weight that I actually feel. Its very ingrained in me at this point to play this emotionally draining music, but it makes me feel alive, and I think my band mates would agree, it helps us all stay “normal” without psych drugs.
MYE: Right, it is emotionally draining to some but cathartic to the adept! How did vocalist Nathan Ellis approach this album? A lot of times a singer will gain a bit more confidence in their role on a subsequent record from the one they debut on, like Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage for a more metalcore example. What did Nathan do to prepare and also how do you attach lyrics to the records, before or after or during the musical writing?
BG: Nathan did a killer job of executing his vocal tracks during the recording process. His voice sounds thicker and stronger than ever. We tend to write and demo the songs first, then have lyrics written, that are then fit into place, and demoed, before we make an album.
MYE: The cover art for the LP is great. I’ve gotta get the T-Shirt too, it’s killer! It almost reminds me of a stark, Joy Division-esque proto-Goth image. Your new album cover and the new Moonspell Night Eternal record are definitely my favorite covers of 2008 so far.
BG: Thanks, we go for the stark single image thing. Black on black is something we've been dying to try, we finally did it.
MYE: What’s the relationship between the third track “A Subtle Violence” and the fourth ,” And a Slow Surrender”, thematically, if any?
BG: That was originally one song, but we deemed it smart to separate them in terms of the track marker and title, but keep them one continuous piece musically. "A Subtle Violence" is about the meat grinder of daily working life, and "And a Slow Surrender" is the instrumental reflection, culminating in the last heavy riff, surrender.
MYE: How did you know “Cathedral” was the opener? It is my favorite.
BG: The intro screamed opener, the song had all the elements we think would encourage continued listening, and it’s certainly one of the strongest on the album.
MYE: In the Cillian Murphy/Michelle Yeoh movie Sunshine these astronauts in the future go to space to set off a huge charge to reignite the sun in the future. It is a good movie to watch when you are a little too baked. The theme reminded me of Daylight Dies, like the sun going out, literally the Sun or incidentally on a micro-personal human level or metaphorically, and how it relates to our fate. Or in a benign way, one thing ending could be a new opportunity if it is a passing, like nature, rather than a murder out of envy, for example. Sorry, you guys make me think too much about this shit! [laughing]
BG: I love your questions.
Goodnight, and thanks for the interview.
