BIRB'S HIDDEN GEMS: The Dear Hunter "A Night On The Town" 

BIRBS’S HIDDEN GEMS or BIRB’S FAVOURITES?

Perhaps THE most underrated band out there honestly. If you know you know, but I feel like if you aren't into bands like circa survive, coheed, or dance gavin dance you've probably never heard of them (although they all sound different, they just get grouped together often). The color spectrum is a great place to get started with TDH. They released the album as EPs with 4 songs each, each giving their own representation of the color spectrum; black, red, orange, etc. Completely shows off the range of the band. Casey is also a top 5 vocalist for me. Glad you're giving light to a truly awesome band birb.

This is a really interesting song. Now I want to check out more of this band.

Dude anybody who does t know The Dear Hunter is missing out. The color spectrum is an absolute masterpiece!

The ending is so effective when you understand its callback and context

I will never forget how utterly blown away I was when this track came out. Not only was it the first music they had released for The Acts in years, but its scope as a track is enormous (you could immediately hear how Colour Spectrum and Armour & Attrition had sharpened Casey’s writing/arranging chops), and the several reprises/references to older tracks was such an exciting way to return to the universe of The Acts.

STORY SYNOPSIS BELOW So happy you posted some thoughts on TDH, I always see you suggesting them to other reactors and much appreciation for that. Casey has been my musical hero since Between the Heart and the Synapse (still in my top 3 albums ever), and thus TDH is my favorite band. Between the Buried and Me comes in second (that split was a dream come true). I'll try my best to roughly outline the story for you by album, doing this on mobile though so apologies for errors: Act I: Late 1800's to early 1900's...Ms. Terri (main character's mother) escapes her life at The Dime (whorehouse in The City) after her child is born (Hunter, the main character). She leaves to a small cottage by The Lake and The River. Hunter grows up here, defending his mother from people from The City coming to bring her back to work. She ends up being murdered. Act II: After his mother's death, Hunter leaves The Lake and The River. He takes a train where he first runs into The Oracles, a group of people who continually warn Hunter of coming trouble via prophecy. When he arrives in the city, he unknowingly finds The Dime. One of the whores, Ms. Leading, takes him to bed. Hunter falls in love with her, and eventually her with him, though he is ignorant (somewhat willfully) of her profession. Hunter is given a job to be her driver by The Pimp and The Priest (P&P from here out). The P&P runs The Dime by night, and The Church by day. This selling sin, and absolving The City of it. Double the profit. Hunter eventually catches Ms. Leading in the act, and feels betrayed. He leaves on a boat for The War that has started across the ocean. Ms. Leading tries to write him to no avail. Act III: Hunter enlists with the troops heading into WWI. He faces many trials and philosophical struggles, battle to battle. Eventually he succumbs to a mustard gas attack by The Enemy. He is saved by his (unbeknownst to him) half brother. While Hunter is recovering ohe overhears one of the generals recounting a tale to his troops about a whore he slept with years ago at The Dime in The City. Hunter puts two and two together and realizes this man is his father, and the man who saved him is his half brother. The General treated his mother like shit when he was with her and this greatly angers Hunter. When his half brother dies in a battle, Hunter decides to poison The General, and assume his half brothers identity (Hunter is super fucked in the head at this point from past trauma and PTSD from the war). He plans to try and find happiness in his half brothers life back in The City. Act IV: Hunter returns from the war, excited to meet his Step Mother and see what happiness might await him. He soon realizes that this farce will not replace what he's lost. He still mourns his mother and Ms. Leading. One night he goes drinking with some of his half brother's old friends and ends up drunk at The Dime where he sees Ms. Leading again (A Night on the Town). He ends up sleeping with her, but returns to his new family the next day. His half brother had a woman he was set to marry that knows something is off, but goes along with it. They go to Sunday mass at The Church. There Hunter recognizes The Priest as The Pimp. During the sermon, Hunter wells with anger and vows to fight the corrupt hold the P&P has on the city. He runs for mayor and wins. However, the P&P knows who Hunter REALLY is and blackmails him. As long as Hunter keeps him around, he won't tell The City that he isn't who he says he is. Act V: With his numerous traumas, PTSD, and lies building, Hunter succumbs to opium addiction. He has visions of his mother telling him to make things right. Tensions rise between the P&P and Hunter. A businessman comes to The City, Mr. Usher, and begins to play Hunter and the P&P even more against each other. Hunter has a child with his now wife (the half brother's betrothed), while still seeing Ms. Leading (they love each other fully at this point). Mr. Usher's machinations come to fruition when he convinces the P&P to murder Ms. Leading to get to Hunter. Hunter finds her dead at The Dime, and burns both it and The Church to the ground. The P&P arrives with a mob of people, telling them that Hunter is evil, an imposter, and is here to destroy The City. Hunter flees, and the mob and P&P chase him. Eventually they catch him at his house in The City, next to the sea. P&P is the first to rush into the house and Hunter kills him. As the mob pushes into his home, Hunter flees out the back and jumps off the cliff into the sea below, killing himself.

Hell yes man. This album and Act V are probably in my top 10 favorite records ever

"Mustard gas" is my fav tune 👌🖤

Dude this band sounds amazing! I'll need to check them out for sure. Great recommend MetalBirb ❤

I’ve always wanted The Dear Hunter to do a live play through of all of the Acts while actors and actresses act out the story

The band is beyond amazing. I just got finished listening to all their Acts in prep for the online concert tonight.

Yeah, this is such a great idea for a series. Loved this song and excited to dive into their discography!

Dude yesss TDH! Probably one of the most underrated bands out there

I adore this band. Saw them for the first time around 2008 in a small church basement. Such an amazing show. There was maybe 100 people there. And most of us knew every word. They debuted a few songs from Act III that night. And when they played Oracles, they did it entirely unplugged as a sing-along with the crowd. I can't say enough good things about them. And super nice fellas, as well.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this band. They deserve so much more acclaim, imo.

These guys have been among my favorite artists since I first heard them in 2007. Thanks for giving them the rub on here. Not enough reactors have them on their radars.

Great pick my man. Love this track :)

PLEASE MORE DEAR HUNTER!!!!!! Every single album Casey has released is a masterpiece!

They are definitely going into my Spotify playlist

First time I even heard of these guys was when they toured with BTBAM and I was blown away. Honestly, I don't love listening to them a ton, but it hit different live. It was one of my favorite sets I've ever seen.

YES! I Absolutely love the dear hunter! Severely underrated band

DUDE YES this song and album are SO good, one of my all-time favs

Literally my favorite band. Anyone who considers themselves a prog fan, you NEED to do yourself a favor and dive in. The Acts are incredible pieces of music, as is the Color Spectrum.

Knew ya were going to do some Dear Hunter when I knew you were going to do this series LOL, great video, TDH need much more eyes on them!

A lot of bands that try this kind of theatrical indie rock almost come off as kind of cringey to me, but this felt like a genuine celebration of all of the influences they clearly pull from. I'd say a big part of that is due to the varied song structure as well as the feel-good tone that you mentioned, as opposed to the edgy and dramatic tone that a lot of theatrical bands try to emulate.

Easily one of my all time favorite bands. Every album is a masterpiece.

DEAR HUNTER DEAR HUNTER WE ALL SCREAM FOR THE DEAR HUNTER

I found The Dear Hunter back in 2015, a couple years before getting into prog metal like Periphery and Opeth and Tesseract Even though I mostly listen to the harder stuff right now, I'll never forget the feeling of discovering this band. I went to Reddit one night, wanting to discover a band on my own, and saw The Old Haunt on one subreddit, gave it a listen, and ended up listening to several other songs on that album, including this one, that night. The moody piano section towards the end hit me so hard. The atmosphere they can create is incredible.

Always been a fan of this band and receiving end of sirens before them.

The story is all about the birth, life, and death of a man named Hunter. It's a crazy story and I suggest playing the albums all the way through while reading the story along with them.

TDH has been my favorite band since ACT 2 came out in 2007. I was 16 then, I'm 33 now. It's criminal that they are still so relatively unknown. They really are the single most underrated band to ever exist.

I was surprised and excited to find a video about this band on your page! I am a major metalhead too, but The Dear Hunter is one of my all time favorite bands!

Haven’t heard this song in ages! Chances are you’re gonna have me on a Dear Hunter binge tonight

LOVE to see you showing this genius brainchild of a band some love! The Dear Hunter proves you don't have to be metal to write heavy music! =)

YES!! i. LITERALLY just started listening to the dear hunter two days ago!!

The Dear Hunter is hands down the greatest band. They can take all of my money. I will always support these incredibly talented human beings.

As a fan of a few years now, I'm still surprised by how underrated they are. For me they also opened the gates of progressive rock genres and some other bands that I consider my top favorites like Leprous. I appreciate you trying to introduce some people to TDH!

I hope more people start enjoying them. I keep suggesting them to friends.

Dam you Birb all I needed was another great band to splash the cash on hahah. Seriously think this is great :). More votes for more prog bands :)

You have to react to The Reign of Kindo! Not metal but very like this. The Moments in Between could be good choice to start!

I really like this layout where you sprinkle in info on the band

Love these guys, need to delve deeper into their back catalogue tbh. Liked this song when it came out but didn't really latch onto them until I heard Gloria, such a great song

The Dear Hunter is my all time favourite band - glad to see them featured!

The section of the song you said "to put on your dancing shoes" was part of the Untitled track on the extended Act 3 release. It's not as fleshed out as in this song but it's still cool to hear a more raw take of that same progression.

Amazing instrumentation. And visually captivating!

Indie.. that's the word. But is also prog, but sometimes you feel in a 1700's town. That's what's magical. And the conceptual album line they follow, even helps them with their creativity and to keep things moving musically

As a metalhead, my entry-point was In Cauda Venenum, from Act 3. But also Blood and The Fire (remains) both from Act 5

TDH has been on my radar for a while but I haven’t jumped into them yet, other than a few songs I’ve heard like Gloria. Gonna give the acts a spin!

Casey is a music genius in my opinion every single album they’ve made is high tier in my opinion. Such a underrated band

The beginning reminded me of Cursive.

The Dear Hunter is absolutely magnificent. Period.

I love me some The Dear Hunter

TDH: "I never wanted to hurt no one..." Me: Ahh tdh is so great, such feel good music TDH: "...no one but YOU" Me: so great

I decided to check out TDH after your anticipated albums of 2021 video, had a blast with Act V album, a vary diverse sounding band.

Goddamn.

This is one of their best by far

Oh man! I'm so happy that you've introduced this band to us! They absolutely deserve more attention for such an innovative and unique band. So I'm a much newer fan to the band, as I've actually checked out Act I to Act III a while back (still finding time for Act IV and V), and I gotta say, I'm truly enthralled by their song compositional and arrangement skills, as well as their storytelling! And yeah, you're absolutely correct about The Dear Hunter being an album experience kinda band - it almost feels like you're watching a movie with every album you listen to. And when you said they sometimes sound like Disney music, I can't agree with you more! Their music at times instantly put me back to the days of me watching 90's Disney films and stuff, where their music is super theatrical and fun, and that is why I believe this band is truly something special, and I don't think many bands could pull that off. Also, I'm a sucker for orchestral music in rock and metal, so, if done right, orchestral music can create an additional layer of depth and emotion that no matter how many layers of guitars/vocals you put in a song, or having the drums going all crazy and stuff, it just won't be the same. There's something about orchestral music that moves you in a different way. Anyway, I can undoubtedly sayThe Dear Hunter has created music that is so elegant and creative, that they're like masterful works of art, and they absolutely deserve way more attention.

Hope they’re thrown into the spotlight with their new Antimai album!

Holy shit how have I never heard of these guys!?

Love me some Dear Hunter.

I don’t know why but this makes me feel like you’d LOVE Hellions’ album Rue

Used to be in The Receiving End of Sirens, which also used to be an awesome band.

A Night On The Town is usually what I should people now when they ask about The Dear Hunter. I feel like as a single song, it's a pretty good snapshot of their style(s). Then I'm like... ok do you want to hear the more metal stuff or the more eclectic stuff next? lmao

Nice reaction! You should check out Darko US - Mars Attacks next

"Planned to conclude with a sixth installment" - if Casey allows, maybe, one day...

TDH is GOAT. If you get it, you get it.

It's weird how the absolute fervour shown for this band in comments here doesn't translate into any kind of profile. Me, I think they're one of the best bands around, speaking as a veteran prog fan from the 70's!

"A Rapid Calm" lol. Hey what's the intro music btw, it actually sounds like TDH

The more people that get turned onto The Dear Hunter the better!

Bro gotta check out the new Darko US so good and so damn heavy. Their best single yet imo

gave me arcade fire/stars vibes for some reason

Check out Ghost Iris- Desert dread

you should check out the new mental cruelty song called ultima hypocrita, its nuts

Dear hunter a Feel good band hmmmm? My admittedly incomplete knowledge of the story and acts say otherwise 😂. But nevertheless they are an amazing band and I completely agree that the music is like magic, easily one of my favourites along with Hands Like Houses and Ninja Sex Party.

Try to recommend several times to my best friend and he has tried many times, but no. His lost...

Dear Hunter is such a strange band. City Escape is also a super sick song and doesn't sound much like any of their others.

This reminded me so much of Devin Townsend´s newset work. His track Genesis is kind of similar to this song. If you do not know Devin, you should definitely check his stuff out!

Only reason I clicked was because I'm a HUGE TDH fan.

i don't get how the hell TDH is feel-good music to you, but ok

Mental Cruelty - "Ultima Hypocrita" was just released few days ago .Can we get a reaction to probably the best track of the year please?

If you don't listen to TDH religiously what are you even doing with your life?!?

no screaming? feel good band? are you sure about that lol