No Reply

Album Review

Daylight Dies is from Raleigh, North Carolina, but No Reply sounds far more like something from Sweden or Great Britain than it does anything from the band's home state (or from the U.S. in general). They play Goth-tinged doom/death metal in a style that is strongly reminiscent of early-to-middle period Katatonia or Paradise Lost. With nine songs clocking in at just over an hour total — and averaging just under seven minutes each — this is an album that takes its time in driving its point home. The band does a good job at balancing basic, hard-rocking rhythms with semi-epic song structures, with a strong emphasis on mood and atmosphere; one that is about three-fourths melancholy and despair, and the other one-fourth triumphant and heroic. The key element of Daylight Dies' sound, apart from Guthrie Iddings' agonizing growled vocals, are the multi-layered, mostly distorted guitars of lone six-stringer Barre Gambling. Songs such as "Hollow Hands" and opener "The Line That Divides" show his ability to simultaneously bring out the heaviness, atmosphere, and heartbroken melodic feel that are equally important to pulling off this style.