Alex Distefano Dawn Fades
Dawn Fades (Metal Assault)
Dawn Fades is an L.A.-based post-metal band that will be releasing its self-titled debut album via Metal Assault Records on Friday, Feb. 8. The band’s lineup consists of guitarists Nate Hertweck and Adam El-Gerbi, vocalist Sam Sherwood, bassist Markus Erren Pardiñas and drummer Scott Quist.
The album is a riff-heavy blend of heaviness and melody with many different layers and overtones. Overall, the timing of the rhythm section on this record is spot-on, keeping the songs coherent and focused. The album begins with the track “Lean” and has a slightly industrial intro, which bursts into a heavy, post-metal sound but moves from acoustic to distortion in spurts.
Slower at times and very doomy, it has moments of melodic death metal, and even singing. The song “Shackle” is very lucid, electrical and dreamy with clean vocals that are haunting and ethereal, but it builds up after a couple of minutes to something darker and heavy.
The record contains layered vocals, such as in the song “Freeze,” which offers listeners a slower sludgy sound, but then switches to an aggressive metal style, dark and majestic in scope. You can feel every drumbeat, bass line and guitar riff in the entirety of this record, and during most songs, the vocals are ancient, angst-ridden and apocalyptic.
Dawn Fades are talented musicians, and the band creates music that lulls you in and then smashes your cranium on one hand, but might lull you to sleep on another level. The heaviness of the music on this record forces you to bang your head, though not continuously, as each of the seven tracks varies in structure and level of aggression.
If you like bands like Opeth, Alcest, Intronaut or Paradise Lost, Dawn Fades are worth checking out. The band’s sound can be best described as a mashup of Deftones and Neurosis, with hints of Eyehategod and Enslaved.
To celebrate the release of the album, Dawn Fades hold a record release show on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m. at the Old Towne Pub, 66 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena.
Credit: Metal Assault
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