{"id":65013,"date":"2018-06-26T18:30:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T17:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=65013"},"modified":"2018-07-08T12:46:03","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T11:46:03","slug":"review-dance-gavin-dance-artificial-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-dance-gavin-dance-artificial-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Dance Gavin Dance &#8211; Artificial Selection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-65014\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-465x465.png 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/622055.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Officially at the eight album mark, it might be safe to say post-hardcore outfit <strong>Dance Gavin Dance<\/strong> have finally settled down. <em>\u2018Artificial Selection\u2019<\/em> features the same line-up as their previous two releases, and the usual conversations over their erratic position shifts feel like they&#8217;re in the distant past. However, this translates straight to the music: it feels like they\u2019ve eased up on their experimental side, resulting in one of their most uninspired releases to date.<\/p>\n<p>Considering its almost hour-long length, this is an issue. Lead single,\u00a0<em>\u2018Midnight Crusade\u2019<\/em> is a poster child for the Tilian Pearson-era of the band. Tilian himself is their anchor, a constant (but often bland) driving force. Jon Mess\u2019 screams are powerful and have personality, but are frustratingly written: \u201c<em>My business is pregnant and flaunting off nude, I&#8217;m smoking a chicken I took out the coupe.\u201d<\/em> Meanwhile, the guitars jump between genres manically in a way that achieves little.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>Care\u2019<\/em> is a particularly difficult moment that sums up a lot of their lyrical issues, running a dramatic relationship story parallel to a weird story about seeing The Prodigy, wearing jeans and taking ecstasy. Similarly,<em> \u2018Flash\u2019<\/em> tries to match up a sexual relationship with a worrying backstory that covers a childhood encounter with a hot mom and her racist husband.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Dance Gavin Dance - Artificial Selection (Album Stream)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PLKcGEIO7V0rVklpuFLDXBPfXGADXPaUY1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s definitely some solid moments on offer here. <em>\u2018Suspended In This Disaster\u2019<\/em> is a catchy number that manages to balance virtuoso guitar melodies with more traditional pop songwriting, while \u2018<em>The Rattler\u2019<\/em> sees the band double down on punk influences, resulting in dissonance and one of their heavy tracks yet.<em> \u2018Shelf Life\u2019<\/em> features ex-vocalist Kurt Travis, who manages to renew the luscious, atmospheric sound of their past work.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone knew that <strong>Dance Gavin Dance<\/strong> were going to finally slow down their creative streak, they likely wouldn&#8217;t have anticipated that it would be as anti-climactic as this. <em>\u2018Artificial Selection\u2019<\/em> sounds too familiar, containing a couple of great post-hardcore fusion songs in a wave of forgettable ones.<\/p>\n<p>2\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Artificial Selection\u2019<\/em> by <strong>Dance Gavin Dance<\/strong>\u00a0is out now on <strong>Rise Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dance Gavin Dance<\/strong> links:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dancegavindanceband.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> |\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DanceGavinDance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DGDtheband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dancegavindance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Sam Seaton (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/citrus_music_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@citrus_music_<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Officially at the eight album mark, it might be safe to say post-hardcore outfit Dance Gavin Dance have finally settled down. \u2018Artificial Selection\u2019 features the same line-up as their previous two releases, and the usual conversations over their erratic position shifts feel like they&#8217;re in the distant past. However, this translates straight to the music: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":65014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,15512,1391,18,15032],"class_list":["post-65013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-artificial-selection","tag-dance-gavin-dance","tag-rise-records","tag-sam-seaton"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Dance Gavin Dance - Artificial Selection - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Officially at the eight album mark, it might be safe to say post-hardcore outfit Dance Gavin Dance have finally settled down. \u2018Artificial Selection\u2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Dance Gavin Dance - 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