Sikth's Death of Dead Day Review
Various people largely classify Sikth as a "noisecore" band. Normally, I dont go in for genre classification as there are so many, but in this case, I feel the label does this band justice. They are technical, hardcore and most importantly, noisy. Most bands are hard to pigeon-hole; the only way to classify Sikth is random. I can't really say metal or loud either, since although the majority is rip-roaring metal, a sizeable portion isn't.
Sikth formed in 2001 and hail from Watford. This six piece band have received a reasonable amount of attention from the media. Having played both Download and Guilfest this year, I was eager to review this album. The first thing that hits you about this album is the erratic, almost noisy style. It feels like Sikth have tried to cram as many different metal clichés into every single song at break-neck speed. "Bland Street Bloom" starts with soft, almost choir-like lyrics, moving swiftly into screaming lyrics, thrashing guitars and fast drumming. But it doesn't stay that way for long. The chorus reverts back to clean lyrics, reminiscent of Trivium's dual lyrical style. Just as you are getting the feel for the tune, it changes yet again to much more guttural singing, faster drum-beat and random guitar licks.
"Way beyond the fond old river" is one of the songs responsible for Sikth's reputation as a metalcore band. It is much closer to modern, heavy metal with less of what seems like "an experiment in cramming as much extreme variation into one song as possible".
"In this Light" doesn't seem to belong to this album. It's slow with harmonic lyrics, lightly distorted guitars, soft drumming and a much slower rhythm - reaffirming the bands claim: " If something sounds good, then we'll do it, and that includes beautiful, melodic music, which we all love, too."
"Where do we fall" is much more rock than metalcore. The lyrics are cleaner, the rhythm slower and the guitar work is quite reminiscent of hard-rock bands in general. There's no screaming, cookie-monster (tm) lyrics or guitar thrashing in this track, unlike half of the others.
It is easy to believe that a loud, erratic band have no talent and are just out to make incoherent noise. This isn't the case with Sikth. Every song speaks of their obvious talent. The singing, though varied, is impressive. The guitar work is both fast and full of thrash, and slow and melodic depending on the song. Some may appreciate the almost thrash metal tracks with their lack of consistent tune. Others may prefer the slower, melodic rock tracks with plenty of discernible structure. Variety is both their strength and weakness. I feel that if they'd focused on one style, they may have left a memorable song in my head. Despite this, each song doesn't quite depart for noise city; they do show some restraint. At least I'll remember them for being random.