Album Review - D:A:D - Helpyourselfish

"Now, my word no one relies on
Never said a foolish thing.
Then again... never said a wise one
It is never what you think - it's knowing when to quit
If it wasn't for me and the likes of me
And what I choose to do
What the hell I'd like to know
Why you've become
So candid unreserved'n'true
I'd rather you were I, than I were you"

"As if each drop of rain is tryin' to get at me
Yeah, the joke's over
And it feels as though my heart's empty
And I can't sleep from hearing
All the things I never said."

"There's many a difference quickly found
Between the different people walking around
But you know it's a strange illusion, chaos and confusion..
When the tree of life is cut down to where
There's nothing left, but a toothpick of despair
So instead of support you - we find it's cheaper to deport you!"

"So far between a while well spent
And the time spent keepin' up."

The above quotes resemble some of the advanced and genius lyrics found on this very special and dark edged album. A critical view of the lack of friendly coexistence, the inner chaos we all deal with at times and generally clever commentary on modern society are some of the issues that are brilliantly mixed into a atmospheric Hard Metal/Rock approach.

The album gets off to a groovy and deeply heavy start as Reconstrucdead paints a futuristic and gloomy vision carried out with raw riffs, noisy leads and mean bass passages.

The heavy path continues with Written In Water, resting on a monster tight drum and rhythm guitar pillar. It has a suiting uncomplicated drive that goes right to the bone.

Helpyourselfish has a more Rock than Metal oriented style, nicely mixing in strong choirs, a jamming guitar solo, a relaxed rhythm section and a powerful injection of electric guitar rushes.

A gloomy uneasiness lures within the Soulbender, giving extra life through Jesper's expressive and strong vocals, he really know how to make this demon come alive. His brother Jacob's progressive guitar wizardry is just as important and produces a totally unique dreaming mood.

With Unowned we find a rather strange composition, but none the less one of my favourites on the album. It's a difficult song to describe, kind of a semi-ballad with smart acoustics, a bluesy guitar solo and led forward by a warm and catchy chorus.just great stuff.

To make sure you aren't slipping too far down into your comfortable chair, Candid sets in with an explosion of hard hitting drumming and monster heavy guitar riff. The up-tempo rhythm and direct refrain works splendidly.

Blood In/Out is overall a good tight song with a powerful mid section passage; on the other hand the main rhythm isn't that exciting and it doesn't leave as strong an impression as the other cuts.

A loose but highly interesting guitar approach characterizes the odd but successful Prayin' To A God. I just love the way Jacob bends his solos, incorporating them with lots of soul and giving them an aura that fits the atmosphere so well.

It is no secret that the production plays a important role concerning these songs, not only is it one of the best produced albums I have in my collection, it's also extremely heavy and with a fantastic deep feel. Just listen to the opening 20 seconds of Naked (But Still Stripping) to get a picture of the raw impact that runs through the whole record. Once again this is a varied, creative and striking piece of intelligent Heavy Rock, I simply love the complicated drumming on this one too.

Are We Alive Here??? presents a refreshing and more bright profile, an in your face rocker with a cool catchy refrain, again packed with rough guitar riffs and smooth details.

It'swhenit'swrongit'sright is a great, short, heavy and to the point kind of track, incorporated an elaborate rhythm session in the middle to keep things evolving.

In perfect fashion the melancholic and yet warm Flat ends the journey with fantastic vocals, a thrilling acoustic guitar, delicate string arrangements creating a hypnotizing mood and a sensitive guitar solo of the finest kind.

Before this album D:A:D were probably best known for their Party Rock approach, but the band decided that they had to make this harder, more serious, sombre and rather atmospheric album to reflect their current state of mind and creative nerve. It was a bold move but also exactly what pushed this production into new waters and wrote such a refreshing and interesting chapter in their career.
Thinking about it, I have a tendency for digging albums that somehow breaks away from the usual formula (Iron Maiden's The X-Factor, Judas Priest's Jugulator and Ayreon's Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer to take a few examples). That many of these albums result in something very creative could explain some of this fascination, as is the case with this unique gem.

From the intelligent song titles, the production, the cover, the musical delivery, the expressive song writing.well more or less everything just falls into it's own profound place with this record.

Fans of both Hard Rock and Heavy Metal should consider giving this a chance to grow; it hides so many wonderful wry obscurities.

Written by Tommy
Saturday, January 7, 2006
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Ratings

Tommy: 8.5/10

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