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Written
by Robert Elgin, posted by blog admin
A
four piece hailing from the wilds of New Jersey, Dust of Days have already established
a reputation both for their promising original material and live appearances
throughout the United States and Canada alike. Their second studio album,
Analog Mind Bender, is their first full length since 2012’s Thomas & Grace
and their first overall release since 2013’s EP Ethers and Embers, but the band
clearly hasn’t lost even a modicum of the momentum they established with those
distant releases. In fact, the band has only picked up steam. The dozen songs
on Analog Mind Bender, many inspired by monumental changes in drummer, singer,
and songwriter Frank Lettieri’s personal life, are united by a penchant for
risk taking and a confrontational style that, even in most muted moments, still
gives listener’s precious little distance or room to breathe. This is an album
focused on making you face its emotions head on, but the band never neglects to
house their sometimes dark and despairing narratives within musically
compelling structures.
The
title song starts off the album with a kinetic blast of alternative rock tinged
with some tasteful melodic flourishes. Lettieri acquits himself as a first
class rock singer on this track, but those who assume this is the likely extent
of his vocal range are in for many surprises on this album. He does an
exceptionally good job with the chorus and his voice is a good fit for the arrangement.
Dust of Days summons up sheets of six string fury with the song “Aurora” and
further skewers your expectations for the band by teetering back and forth
between conversational and conventional vocals. It’s apparent, even two songs
in, that Lettieri is blessed with a particular sort of vocal yowl certain to
capture attention and even, in some cases, tug at your heart strings. His first
emotive showcase comes with the song “Mustang” and he touches Chris Cornell
like heights with the cathartic wail coloring so much of the track. The two
guitar tapestry provided courtesy of Mike Virok and Jim McGee tap into the song’s
wasted bluesy elegance and provides excellent instrumental counterpoints to
Lettieri’s vocals. Dust of Days returns to familiar guitar workout territory on
the song “Heavy”, but it’s more of a riffer than what the listener will be
accustomed to at this point in the album. The crushing quality of the guitars
is underlined by the earth-splitting interplay between Lettieri’s drumming and
bassist Scott Silvester.
“The
Circus” is a raucous punk rock inspired onslaught that begins with a claustrophobically
fast bass line. The guitars come careening in and sound on the verge of veering
out of control throughout the entire track, but the vocal helps rein things in
some by giving the song some sense of traditional shape. “Death Vibrations” is
an especially jovial romp, but it has a lot of energy and traditional rock song
strengths despite the light punk rock pose it seems to suggest. It’s one of
Lettieri’s better vocals on the album. The album’s second to last track “The
Shore” will shock many. The guitars fall away and Dust of Days, instead, builds
this track around piano, vocals, and some contributions from strings. It might
sound incongruous with the rest of the album, but even a single close listen
will illustrate how it comes from the same sensibility, just geared in a
different direction. Analog Mind Bender is an album brimming over with
inventiveness and imagination – moreover, it’s indelible testament to the fact
that there are many young musicians still out there hungry and able to write
and record challenging work that still rocks the hell out.
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