Lackluster (2009)
Pleasantly Gloomy.
Alternating between dark-trance and dark-pop, this will be consistently boring or annoying to anyone that doesn’t like “dark”. To those that DO like “dark”, this will intermittently enthrall/entice and madden/disappoint.
The vocals blend in with the music, or vice versa, rendering them irrelevant on their own, which is fitting for trance and especially goth-inflected trance and the preference of mood and style over substance.
Think of early My Bloody Valentine after a death (or two) in the family and with more of a desire to express ideas and less concentration on fostering (and maintaining) a mood. The synth seems over-used and the drums seem (by contrast) under-used, which is perfect for trance, but when it veers more towards pop it becomes a problem.
Potential? Yes. But for every band that eventually puts out a ‘Loveless’, a masterful work of indecipherable mood music, there are dozens that either never perfected that mood despite repeated attempts or never learned to write consistent hooks (vocal or otherwise) that would make said mood irrelevant.
One of those paths is necessary for any true, long-lasting relevance.
(“If Only I Could”)
Grade: B-
2012: In an attempt to write a proper review, I sought a band to compare them to. The choice was incorrect because, as I state in my initial review, there is more a desire to actually express ideas via intelligible words, to be verbally blunt. My Bloody Valentine they’re not, and they never will be…the wall of sound erected on ‘Loveless’ is, in my opinion, too intricate. But that’s not the point. The specialty of THIS band is writing catchy songs with mostly vocal/synth hooks (the vocal ones are actually better than the synth ones, not to insult the synth ones) and an increasing incorporation of drums. All that being said, I still think this is exactly what I graded it initially…pretty good. If the writing ever consistently reaches the level of “If Only I Could” and “Beautiful Death” (The playing is already there), then they will have something…no ‘Loveless’, but Dae Noctem doesn’t want that, I think…she wants to express herself in a blatantly hooky way. And sometimes, she succeeds.
Grade: B-