Artist: Dan Dankmeyer (US) Album: X (2010) Genre: Instrumental, Progressive Metal If you paid attention to this post, you will remember Mr. Dan Dankmeyer, the American one-man-band we featured in that post. Like I said in that post, he released his latest album, titled simply ‘X’, on the first of October. I’ve listened to it in my car every day of the last week and am ready to share my findings with you! By Niek

I have been quite critical in judging this release, mainly because I’ve heard some of his previous work and know what Dankmeyer is capable of: delivering tasty, melancholic and atmosphere-rich instrumental Metal that is just very good. But it also leaves more to be desired in some essential – at least according to me – musical areas.

Apart from making music, Dankmeyer is also a graphically creative guy. The evidence is right in front of your nose: he custom-made that graphic you see, specifically for this post. I think that’s a very awesome thing to do, especially when being subjected to the mercy of a reviewer, so thanks for the brilliant piece of art, Dan! Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I can start being the critical bastard I just said I was going to be. Mwuahahaha!

Instrumental music is generally characterized by a lack of vocals, I’m sure you knew that. Consequently, there’s nothing that’s sung about and hence, except in cases of highly descriptive music, also the song titles don’t have much meaning. This fact is all the more evident on this album. Titles like “Drop E Lolz”, “Metal Idea”, “8-1” and even “Instrumental” remind me of how I used to name the songs I wrote after the date I wrote them on, simply because of a complete lack of inspiration. Does 8-1 mean he wrote this song on the first of August perhaps? But this is fine, absolutely fine. I don’t give a shit about titles. In fact, frequently I just know a song’s number anyway. Then I particularly like the second, third and sixth track of an album for example, but I have no clue what their titles are.

I said in that above mentioned post that Mr. Dankmeyer is quite a productive geezer, as X is his fourth album this year. If he hurries he might even make five. His speed of delivery must be an advantage of his one-man-bandship, as there’s no need to solve disputes and strike compromises of any kind with fellow band members. Not having to argue about musical direction and a good feel for melody and riff building then allows a man – or woman – to serve albums up like they were hotdogs.

But, unfortunately there’s also a downside. The fact that you’re all by yourself makes that there’s only one musical taste to be converted into music, running the risk of creating a disc full of tracks that are all very similar. It seems Mr. Dankmeyer fell for this “trap”. Though he did manage to convey an atmosphere and general feel different than on his previous release, Light, the bulk of the songs on X is low-tuned riffs supporting leads of high melodicity (that’s a word I made up, I know). That might not seem any different from other bands, but take note that this is purely instrumental music and so the musical recipe is a lot more apparent.

The basic idea of this album is that of melodic Metalcore/Melodeath guitar playing with some progressive elements. These are mostly due to the use of an eight-string guitar for the riffs – the first time he uses one on his albums – which, at times, gives a Meshuggah-feel to the material. Just to be clear about it: that’s good! Complimented by strong, melodic leads, you would think all the necessities for good, original Melodeath music are there. But though, the music may be original in relation to other bands or artists, it’s less so when viewed album internally; most songs are similar in feel, style and sound.

Of course there are exceptions to this, as is for example the track The Art of… It features a break with a solo of near-clean playing that starts warm but fresh, hopping like a young bird that’s just left its nest for the first time – where the fuck do I get these analogies?! Instrumental is another track that stands out from the pack.And 07080 is a track that is both catchy in its melodies and gnarling in its riffs and makes me want to play it many times in a row. Point is that these tracks are different from the album’s standard recipe, which is that of songs consisting of building blocks of riffs with leads, sequenced after each other. It’ll take listening to the whole album, but at some point you will notice the “cement to make all those blocks into unity” isn’t as strong. There’s a certain constant atmosphere, but apart from that there isn’t much that connects the individual blocks, you start to notice the individual blocks and that becomes slightly frustrating after a while.

But it’s not all bad. Far from it in fact! Because strange at it may seem, despite the fact that the music is unable to keep my interest over the course of the full album, Dankmeyer is very capable of setting a certain atmosphere in his music that keeps me focused for at least a good number of tracks. It’s only the fact that the atmosphere doesn’t change that bothers, but the atmosphere itself is very delicious. It’s like a whole liter of ice cream: it’s absolutely delicious, but after half of it you’re satisfied. And if you continue, you don’t really enjoy it much anymore, as your cravings for it have worn off.

Basically my experience with this album has been that of really enjoying the first half a dozen or so tracks I hear, the next two or three slightly less so and then realizing during the last few that I’m getting bored. That experience has repeated itself day after day in the last week, with me loving what I hear every time I started the album, so in that sense the album is either too long for its diversity or not diverse enough for its length.

What Dankmeyer’s music needs then is something to spice it up, the chunks of chocolate, caramel, nuts, sauce and what not to give the ice cream its deliciousness back. It occurred to me quite early in the week that though the music has guitar solos, they aren’t very different from the “normal” leads. The resultant is that most songs miss an absolute climax. There’s rising action for sure; leads will build up tension. But then, when you really, really want that pinnacle of guitar mastery that’ll make you play air guitar like a shameless retard, it falls back a few levels again.

That would be my two main points of constructive criticism to Dankmeyer; 1) increase the diversity and 2) focus on delivering climaxes. Come to read what I just wrote, it’s just like sexing up your girlfriend! If he does that, he’ll be able to lift his good quality music – because that’s still what it really is – to a level of exceptional quality.

For you, for now, like all of his albums, X can be download off Dankmeyer’s Bandcamp page for a price you set yourself. I urge you to do so and don’t be El Cheapo and give the guy some bucks for too! If you don’t have to digest as much Metal every day as I do, chances are high you won’t even consciously notice those two points of criticism I have at all and you’ll have made a highly enjoyable purchase. But if you are a highly critical asshole like me, you’ll still be able to subtract hours of enjoyment out of this album – I have too! – but you’ll just have to split it up into half hour listening sessions. But you’ll still have made a highly enjoyable purchase!

My Grade: 7.5/10
Buy this when:

• you’re looking for a good, melodic piece of Metal, but need a break from all the screaming, grunting, vocal-puking you normally get (and love) in Metal
• you usually feel like another liter of ice cream after you finished your first
• you liked the song March of the Shredders, which we featured in over here, and want more of this

Tags: American, instrumental, progressive, review

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 10th, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.