DaCast

Despite featuring a fetching, nude dame on the cover, the music on DaCast's debut LP Dédale is anything but beautiful. Drawing heavily from the same creative wells as bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Number 12 Looks Like You, and Converge, DaCast's brand of jazzy, spastic, metallic hardcore is abrasive and complex.

Dedale featues only two tracks: 'Face A', clocking in just a smidge over 15 minutes, and 'Face B' at 20 minutes. While lengthy and complex song structures are not uncommon to this brand of metal, DaCast's particular flavor seems better suited to shorter song lengths. That's not to say the music is bad. In fact, the mix of technical riffs that teeter on the edge of jazz-like improvision, and brutally crushing breakdowns perfectly captures the band's aptly self-ascribed "chaotic metal" descriptor.

To try and sum up both tracks in just a few sentences is nearly impossible, as dizzying guitar work, unrelenting drumming, and ear piercing vocals ebb and flow between different time signatures and styles so quickly and unexpectedly that trying to find a moment of clarity can be a futile endeavor. That being said, the two tracks certainly feel their length, often times feeling directionless and meandering. I couldn't help but get the impression that shorter song lengths may have benefitted some of the great ideas on display on this record.

Dédale is chaotic and at times inaccessible. Still, DaCast are brimming with talent and passion. Fans of the mathcore genre will eat this up, but outsiders may find themselves confused or put off.

#DaCast #mathcore #Metal #Stubble #Brendan Hesse