By Night – A New Shape of Desperation
Lifeforce Records – LFR063-2 – October 17th, 2006
By Jason Jordan
By Night have provided the deathcore crowd with a scorcher of a record –
A New Shape of Desperation, to be exact – that is a disjointed yet highly engaging sophomore outing. Though one can tell there is a fiery passion behind the music, their PR blurb puts it best, [
BN are] “cold, sterile, and machine-like” and it does seem as if a large amount of calculation went into each and every song.
After the introduction known as “It Starts Within,” “The Truth is Sold” kicks off with industrialized precision (
Thy Disease, among others) and a razor-y production reminiscent of
Meshuggah,
Gojira,
Textures, etc. The music simply pummels, and is very tight to boot, although the emergence of Phipps-like vocals (
Unearth) lends credence to the belief that
By Night aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel here. However, the influx of melody and hardcore-isms in “People Like You,” plus the unexpected bass drops, may cause one to question his/her original pigeonholing – maybe
A New Shape of Desperation has more to offer than I first thought. “Same Old Story” is anything but the same old story – as it smokes uncontrollably – while the
Blackwater Park guitar tones in “Dead Eyes See No Future” (uh, guys,
Arch Enemy?) and the beginning of “Walls of Insecure” will result in many a head scratch. Still, the hardcore portions of “Idiot” could not be fashioned by a unit located outside of Sweden, and despite the cliché nature of piano accompanying drums/bass to ceremoniously end an album, “Time Is Running Out” is surprisingly tasteful, if not a tad overblown and self-important.
Coming off of their debut
Burn the Flags,
A New Shape of Desperation is a solid record by an up-and-coming band. They have the propensity to intentionally veer from the beaten path, which may turn some people off, but their idiosyncrasies are well done and not completely out of place. Judging by a track record that has included or does include
Between the Buried and Me,
Caliban,
Enforsaken,
Fear My Thoughts,
Heaven Shall Burn,
Nightrage,
Raunchy,
Trivium, and
Withered, I’d say
By Night are destined to go somewhere.
7.5/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Official By Night Website
Official Lifeforce Records Website
