Hey, Facedown Records and Victory Records…why didn’t you pick up Haste the Day when you had the chance? They aren’t typical, they have aggression, and pop melodies enfused into their choruses, Haste the Day and their 2008 album Dreamer are basically an ideal example of metal being metal, but being that much more accessible to fans who might not be outwardly metalheads. What’s wrong with this? Well, Solid State Records, long time label for the band, doesn’t think there is anything wrong with it.

Prior to Dreamer I really wasn’t a Haste the Day fan, and wrote them off as another hopeless Christian-inspired metalcore act. I did indeed give them a chance to win me over with a few of their records, but all the elements that makes Dreamer work for the band were just merely passe and run of the mill, especially during their breakout year 2004 when metalcore was in full swing. However, after a few years with almost a new release every year save for 2006, the band has clearly progressed as a young, inexperienced act (as a unit at least) that has gone beyond the scene stereotypes of the leading bands to really form their own confident sound that while not being completely original, is cemented in straight up good songwriting.

In fact, as I have been doing a lot this year, I feel the need to re-listen to past Haste the Day releases to see if they hold up any better now that the metalcore craze has died down in recent years. It’s always nice to let a specific kind of sound that becomes popular and saturated, to mature and ferment over the years to really find out what composers were for real, and what others were merely copycats living in the shadows of their peers. After listening to Dreamer, I think it’s safe to say that Haste the Day are fermenting just enough, the question now is, have they peaked?

GOOD

Top Tracks: Resolve, Mad Man, Haunting

Similar Artists: Underoath, The Devil Wears Prada, All That Remains, Bleeding Through

1. 68
2. Mad Man
3. Haunting
4. Resolve
5. An Adult Tree
6. Babylon
7. Invoke Reform
8. Sons Of The Fallen Nation
9. Labyrinth
10. Porcelain
11. Autumn

Stephen Keech Vocals
Brennan Chaulk Guitar / Vocals
Devin Chaulk Drums
Michael Murphy Bass / Vocals

Solid State Records

http://www.myspace.com/hastetheday

Review by CODY