Daath – The Concealers

Daath have just released their new album entitled “The Concealers”. Before commenting on their album let me say a few things regarding the band to avoid any misunderstandings. Daath are one of the bands I favor; they are all very well educated and hard-working musicians and above all good players! If you’ve ever listened to their previous album, “Hindeerers”, you should know that they are true experts at what they do. They put in a lot of effort and hard work and produced a magnificent piece of art! When it comes to “The Concealers”, however, I have my doubts…

To be honest I expected much more from Daath – or Dååth to be more precise – this time. I mean they released “Hindeerers” and I was truly shocked; and what I expected this time was an even more uncompromising and innovative album. To my disappointment, for some reason they decided to put in so many solos that in the end all I could feel, after listening to “The Concealers” for the first time, was tiredness! I mean, there’s no need of long and tiring solos to prove that you’re a good guitar player… To be more accurate let me use an example: On the fourth track of the album, entitled “The Unbinding Truth”, there’s a 47-second, melodic guitar intro (!) that I find totally pointless; nothing too special, nothing unique and nothing inspirational! They spent over a minute of the total length of the track – which lasts for 4 minutes and 23 seconds – for a very simple and ultimately tiring guitar intro, which constitutes of one or two themes repeated over and over again…

Other than that, “The Concealers” fulfills all the prerequisites to be classified as one of 2009’s good albums. I very much enjoyed the album’s intro track, “Schatten”, which has a great rhythm and really catchy riffs. Even though Sean Z’s vocals may sound very common, his growls are very well integrated to the broader context of the tracks. At the same time, throughout the album, I saw complete discipline and organization. This may have a lot to do with the album’s production, rather than the musician’s work alone, but either way it contributes greatly to the total outcome.