| CD REVIEW Dragged Into Sunlight |
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Band : Dragged Into Sunlight With Dragged Into Sunlight American label Prosthetic signed its first British band ever. Now anyone whom is somewhat familiar with this label's output, knows that they can expect some of the better releases in the Extreme arts of Metal, and with this band the label certainly scored a not so ordinary band! You see, there's a sense for mystery about this band. On their MySpace page, you may find their names to be Edmund Kemper, Maury Travis, Richard Kuklinski, and Gerard Shaefer...but those may well be figments of your imagination! Live, the band plays in a room filled with smoke and near-darkness, and off-stage they do not publicize their individual names, further keeping their anonymity by appearing masked on band photos. About today's heavy music scene, the band commented: “A few blastbeats, a scrawled logo, and people accept it, regardless of the reality. Dragged Into Sunlight is a concept...we've taken the time to come up with our own understanding and presentation of what we want to see associated with Extreme Metal in 2009 and beyond!”...and in spite of the mystery surrounding the band (or perhaps exactly because of it), D.I.S. has been seen (heheh...good one, that! Get it?) giving support to such scene luminaries as Vader, Grief, Trap Them, Gama Bomb, and Lazarus Blackstar. Word about the Hatred For Mankind album being released on cult label Mordgrimm Records (renowned for having released albums by such greats as Anaal Nathrakh, The Kovenant, and Worms Of Sabnock) was already posted in February 2008 (and therefore we know that the band's been around at least that long), even if the actual release (recorded/ mixed by Tom Dring and Billy Anderson of Eyehategod, Neurosis, Weedeater, and Wizard Ov Misery repute) only took place in September of last year. There's a good possibility that in the meantime the band self-released the 40-minute track “Widowmaker”, announced as part of a trilogy in January of this year. In fact, I'm quite sure there must be more music of the band out there (perhaps on limited edition cd-Rs or even on limited edition vinyl?), or at least about to be released, as at myspace.com/draggedintosunlight we can find a sample of “Terminal Aggressor”, a track nót found on this album! And having been released on a UK label before, the album's already been hailed by such top magazines as Terrorizerand Metal Hammer. Well, with their wacky hybrid of Black/ Death and Doom Metal [the one taking supremacy over the other with frequent intervals...meaning you'll get you sophisticated Death Metal (with fitting grunted vocals) passages will be alternated with faster played Black Metal passages (with screeched singing style) or slower Doom passages (those often with eerie spoken word passages, although you'll get some of those in the heavier passages as well), and the album's even ended with the Noisebient track “Totem Of Souls” (again with spoken word passages)] the band certainly deserve any positive criticism they're getting. There have been sóme reviewers who felt the band wasn't perhaps quite consistent, but that may have been because they weren't listening to this album as a whole? Personally, I simply lóve what these guys do, and I dó so hope this album may be available on vinyl (my ultimate tribute to any band is to buy their vinyl, because thàt has a longer-lasting life span)! Ooh yeah...year-list material, Baby, definitely! I mean, it's not because the review is so short for once, that the release wouldn't be worth it. It's just that there's not so much known about these guys...that's what you get with those mysterious types, you know! Makes one wonder how they're gonna manage keeping up the sneakiness when they visit the US in the Spring of next year for a tour. Oh no, Mr. Border Control Man does nót like them sneaky people! Check out some of the music at myspace.com/draggedintosunlight! 98/100 Tony. |