When a band takes a prolonged break in between albums it’s not hard to expect that they have either gotten lazy, or are working on a masterpiece. It’s also hard to not to expect such a masterpiece from a band which revolutionized your musical taste as an adolescent. And for a band prone to evolution like Daughters, the wait for this self titled album was almost painful.  But like a pending dose of morphine Daughters delivers in a way only they can. Anyone familiar with the group can recall their departure from the grindcore scene by completely cutting out the throaty screams of Alexis Marshall to be replaced exclusively with a southern preachers drawl. ‘Hell Songs’ their second album showcased a sound which proved to be a segway to where they now reside. If there is one thing Daughters proved on this album is you can be insanely heavy with out the tell tale sounds of metal. The things left out on this album (wild banshee screams, shredding guitar solos ect)  make it all that much better. The constant pounding of guitars cranked to ten, dissonant as can be, sludgy distorted bass, machine gun drumming as played by a bridge troll, and of course the signature Alexis Marshall vocal accompaniment. One is left with an image of a drunken reverend, strapped to a nuclear bomb, half singing, half shouting warnings of an impending Apocalypse. If I was to rate this album, I’d give it 100 cans of toxic waste of of 100, but since we don’t do that here at Bluegrassish, here is one of our co-founders iceonthetrail to break down this mutated Mona Lisa track by track.

I  will preface this by saying that I took notes while I was listening to the album, and then did my best to turn them into complete thoughts and sentences.  I think I was only partially successful so they may read a bit strange.  Also, this is very much a headphones album, so if you got em’, use em’!

1. The Virgin

I missed that guitar squeal, but this time its spit-shined and brand new.  Good opener, give the fans a classic song before moving on to the wild stuff.  Like a name-tag or something, just in case you forgot what album you just put on for some reason.  So many layers of noise! There was some fantastic production done on this album.  One of the big things I noticed right off the bat is the blast beats are still there, but in general the drumming is a bit slower, giving the riffs a bit more room to breathe.

2. The First Supper

This is a great choice for a single for this album, really shows you what their new stuff is all about without giving away a lot of the really exciting surprises.  I listened to this song about 40 times before the album came out, it is a good one.

3. The Hit

Wow, never heard a Daughters riff like that before, still very very heavy, but it has an almost electronic crunch to it. Marshall sounds extra drunk in this one. The lead guitar is fantastic, they took that tremolo screeching guitar and made it so epic and soaring, this is a reoccurring sound on this album and it’s great. The little quirks, bleeps and bloops are really cool too, it would be interesting to see what they do live.  This song really shows how much Daughters have diversified, in general it is not as dissonant as their earlier stuff, and I completely understand why people are saying it is their least favourite track on the album.  I swear I hear keyboards in the mix.

4.  The Theatre Goer

For the first five seconds I got nervous that it sounded like System of a Down, but they quickly got heavy and made me feel better again. It’s nice to hear some of the older-style riffs getting thrown in the mix. The guitar “solo” is one my highlights on this album. I hear a bit of a Lightning Bolt in the last bit of the song, which is pretty cool.  This is probably one of my favourite tracks on the album.

5. Our Queens (One Is Many, Many Are One)

Daughters – Our Queens(One Is Many, Many Are One)
Can’t really describe this one as well as I want to.  It seems to be the most straight-forward driving song on this album.  Around 1:40 Rob said it sounds like Death From Above, and hes right.  This is semi-danceable, and that’s weird. Also that’s the most amazing guitar sound ever. I think this will be my new Friday-after-work power jam.

6. The Dead Singer

So far this seems like the most classic, Hell Songs-era Daughters track, sparse instrumentation, pounding drums, Marshall wailing like a drunk preacher barely able to keep himself standing, giving his last sermon before the townspeople never see him again. After a minute and a half long trip down memory lane, they jump right back to the massively-epic riffage.  Someone on a message board said this is what it would sound like if Modest Mouse did a bunch of meth and started writing terrifying music, I like that description.

7. Sweet Georgia Bloom

Daughters – Sweet Georgia Bloom
This song is like if you took whiskey-soaked southern rock and threw it in a blender with some nails and razor-blades, then jumped in yourself. I’m bad at descriptions.
This is another track proving how far Daughters have come since their 30 second grindcore songs a la Canada Songs, its awesome to hear the diversity. The gang vocals are neat too.

8. The Unattractive, Portable Head

More classic Hell Songs-era riffs.  The breakdown at 2:20 really fucked with my head, it doesn’t sound like the Daughters i am used to.  The outro to the track/album is unbelievable, so immense and terrifying, really goes out with a bang.

Conclusion:

You have to give Daughters massive respect for saying “Fuck it” to traditional metalcore vocals and going for the southern preacher drawl.  It worked so well on Hell Songs, and works even better with this release.  The noise and chaos of this album is very calculated and organized, which works extremely well for them. Another change I really liked is the vocals seem a bit deeper in the mix, which I think added to that more organized feel.  Daughters stepped it up just as much as they did with Hell Songs, offering a fresh take on extreme and experimental music. EVERYONE should check this album out. There really is something for everyone.

As a band who keeps improving with every release, lets hope this isn’t the last we hear from them.

Tags: album review, daughters, iceonthetrail, lionsteeth