Written by: Julie Vega
Dance Gavin Dance released their anticipated album Afterburner this past week. With guest vocals like Andrew Wells of Eidola, Bilmuri, and even Will Swan. Dance Gavin Dance adventures in Afterburner with their electronic, latin, hardcore, and rap influences.
The first two tracks Prisoner and Lyrics Lie were released as singles off the record. Prisoner was the first to be released and allowed the fans to get a feel of their new album. Tillians unclean vocals were unexpected, but a great addition to the track. Lyrics Lie followed with Tillians clean vocals. What followed next was Calantamiento Global. Again, Tillian shined again as he sang in spanish as Jon sang in english. The track was filled with groovy, latin influences and added a great vibe to the album. The next two tracks Three Wishes and One in a Million both stood out with their fast guitar and vocalization. Tillian and Jon harmonized amazingly and the fast guitar suited well with their vocals.
Parody Catharsis surprised me as it featured Will Swan, lead guitarist of Dance Gavin Dance. It was nice to hear his vocals being featured and it flowed well with Tillian’s and Jon’s. Strawberry’s Wake followed next, which was another single released. The track started off peaceful and slow, but progressed louder and more intense. The music video for the track was entertaining and added great humor to the track. The next track, Born To Fail, was an intense track filled with callouts and references to the past. Tillian sings “Give me substance, give me something” which is a direct lyric to his previous band, Tides Of Man, song Knowing That You’ve Already Arrived. Continuing on, Jon also adds “Ditch it fist bastard, Cancel all your fans, They’re passed out in the pasture, Sucking up the spam… When life becomes a burden, Just pull a fucking scam.” This references how former vocalist Jonny Craig was selling his macbook, but instead scammed his fans and claimed his account was hacked. Nonetheless, all songs are up to interpretation, but Born To Fail does shine a dark light on the band's past.
Parallels followed after and had a lot of musical influences involved. The group added what sounded like a turntable and also added a cool effect to the guitar towards the end. Parallels was another experimental track that did the album well. Night Sway and Say Hi both followed a similar intensity. Both tracks carried Tillian’s and Jon’s vocals well and the guitar added so much to each track. Towards the end of Say Hi, the distortion effect used on Tillian’s vocals was a great touch. Nothing Shameful arrived and brought me to tears. The most emotional track to me as the lyrics were personal and hit close to home. The track featured Andrew Wells of Eidola and without his contribution, this song wouldn’t be as impactful. His smoothing angelic vocals singing the emotional lyrics provided a passion filled track. Lastly, Into The Sunset played and closed the album out. Featuring Bilmuri, former singer of Attack! Attack!, who added his own musical style to the track. Bilmuri was a great addition to the track and provided a new influence to the group. Again, Will was featured in the track and rapped a couple of verses. His contribution was an unexpected one as hearing a rap verse in a post-hardcore was out of nowhere! But, again, his contribution was amazing and ended the album well.
Afterburner showed that Dance Gavin Dance can experiment with their sound and still maintain their original roots. The hardcore elements of Born To Fail and Say Hi showed their roots, while Calentamiento Global and Into The Sunset showed new styles. Dance Gavin Dance has grown so much from the past couple of years and has been giving so much to their audience. I expected a lot from Afterburner and my expectations went through the roof. I didn’t want this album to end as each track pulled me in. Dance Gavin Dance deserves all the hype and support for Afterburner. If you can, purchase a hard copy of Afterburner or stream it on any streaming service!
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