iKR, rightfully so, Mothership is def their best work. I just can't believe he thrashes IG so much if he can give props to AS, also giving AB a 4 but IG a 1 is a sin in my book.
@@kirikoza2488 I don’t think IG deserves a 1 at all. Is it their best work? Personally no but it definitely didn’t deserve that score. I can see why he scored AB the way he did but IG wasn’t really even a review, more so a rant lol.
agree. Swans guitar work is awesome and he's got cool takes on lead melodies even if he does have a tendency to rely on tapping a little much. Still, if you play guitar you'll know we all have our own little preferences in playstyle and techniques. I've never really followed this dudes reviews simply cause he tends to have well...kinda garbage taste. Oh well
Hes not going to like it if he hasnt liked it by now. I dont think he really listens to this shit half the time, idk. Soulless math leads? One of the worst reviews hes done imo
Such a well-composed review. Despite being a fan of dgd, I agree with some points you made. Even some of the points you made that I don’t completely agree with, you still made great arguments that are hard not to consider. Unsubscribed.
I feel that. Gave it a 7/10 and still got backlash. Guess no matter how detailed or articulate you are or how long you talk about something and present points, people will blindly dislike anyway, haha
It's probably because DGD is one of those bands that he KNOWS everyone likes but him lmao. I personally didn't like AfterBurner but DGD as a whole deserves WAY more credit than he gives them. He shits on them every release that he bothers mentioning.
CitizenCain The saddest thing to me is that I personally think Jon is IMPECCABLE on this album, even with how campy “multiple stab wounds” is. Jon came out fucking swinging on this album and Melon hardly mentioned what he’s bringing to the table.
@@peterhuizar8420 I can see how people wouldn't like Jon's lyrics, but I think there's often a lot more meaning to them than people realize. The end of Parody Catharsis has better writing than you'll find in most poetry magazines today. I generally find that if you look for humor or meaning in Jon's lyrics you'll find it.
The Abactor the lyrics are trash and tacky, they’re deep if you like, have only listened to warped tour bands and have an unhealthy petty hatred for ex girlfriends
I’m just convinced at this point that you just aren’t ever gonna understand this band. It’s like cilantro, either it taste good or it tastes like soap.
I will never understand how Melon can call Swan's guitar work "tonal nonsense" while also glorifying the work of Death Grips and Daughters. This dude's music taste is so bizarre.
That's what so funny to me. He also had the gall to call the clean's "over-processed" yet regularly reviews meme rap and pop. As if most of those vocalists aren't over-processed either.
He brings up some points that are negative but are some of the exact reasons why people love them to begin with. I feel he is purposely tossing the word "gimmick" to throw shade at them simply because they are associated with the scene. I don't quite think that's a fair presumption because when other musicians do it they are considered "progressive" or "experimental". Which is what this band is. Other bands may follow a similar formula as Dance Gavin Dance but no band can capture the elaborate technicalities and harmonies this band produces. You may interpret the album "Soulless" and "gimicky" but many others see it as soulful and experimentally intricate.
I can see how sugary and over processed tillians vocals sometimes are makes the poppier parts often sound soulless and pandering to a big crowd (we can generally say they aren’t) and I can see how to many people the jerking transitions into parts with rapping or non/connected funk / Latin beats aren’t always smooth and seem gimmicky. This isn’t the band at their absolutely best but some songs here do show that they still have a future to prove they can be cohesive and creative even when they have this impressive back catalogue to compete against.
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear tols
Avoided DGD like the plague because I thought they were some weird warped tour band. Heard a random track off of Artificial Selection when listening to a random playlist, heard the entire album fell in love, 2 years later found Mothership and was DAMN! Now I’m hooked on Afterburner. The talent this band has is amazing and Will and Tim made me fall in love with playing again
He probably only listened to it once..... He really puts little effort into the DGD reviews. I'm happy he gave it a little shot, but still.... Like he didn't even know who the Born To Fail lyrics were about; He obviously has no investment or interest in the band. Also he called it Scenester beef? Has he seen the band? They're fucking chads how tf is he calling them scene kids>?
Matthew DiFrancesco because they’re in the scene, and they’re associated with the scene. And every show you go to of theirs is filled with scene bands and scene kids. That’s why
The lyrics on Born to Fail reference the clean singer Tilian's old band, Tides Of Man. "Give me substance, give me something" reference Tides of mans first song off their first album "Empire Theory". Also theres some references to DGDs previous singer Jonny Craig and his infamous MacBook scams
@@lane3574 While i also disagree with most of his points, I do see what he's saying on that one. He's not saying he's a bad singer, just that the vocals have been altered too much in the mix to where they sound too perfect. While I can see where he's coming from, I'm also a fuckin ooga booga caveman that rarely gives a shit about stuff like that or notices for that matter. Essentially my pov on this is "hehe voice go aaaaaaaaaaaaa"
@@lane3574 tilians vocals are objectively over processed, and tilian is not particularly good in the vast majority of instances. i'm so confused what band you've been listening to.
@@psychwardsandSCENE you liked your own comment so I’ll start there. What past few instances? You made a fake point with no context or substance. Have you listened to his solo stuff? Have you seen him preform live before? Do your homework instead of trying to bullshit your way through the project presentation.
Well at least he said he enjoyed Mothership. I was triggered he didn't review it but it's my favorite DGD record. After seeing the backlash he gets on stuff I think I'll accept Anthony isn't feeling this album.
For the most part, I'm pretty sure DGD uses Mess' vocals to fight against Tilian's. Lyrically and musically. Also, most of their songs use doubles with octaves and their processing is minimal. Tilian records all clean vocal stems usually and the most I hear is the standard EQ, De-ess, Compressor, and Delay.
Big DGD fan and I definitely get a lot of your points, Afterburner is quite inconsistent and tracks like Calentamiento Global, Parallels, and Into the Sunset hugely bring it down. Conversely, highlights like Lyrics Lie and Nothing Shameful are some of the strongest in their discography. Definitively a more experimental album but falls a bit flat compared to the higher level consistency shown in ArSe and especially Mothership.
Funny, those 3 are some of my favorites from the album. Different stuff appeals to different people so it's hard to put an objective view on a dgd album
Extremely large disagree with Into The Sunset. Jon Mess's screams breaking in after Bilmuri flows Tilian in was poetry. The instrumentalists on that killed it. I will, however, agree that the trap bass was unnecessary. Calentamieno? As a native Spanish speaker, it was definitely a good meme on first listen. Liked it then, I skip it now. The novelty wore off after a while. Parallels is a mess. Probably my least favorite song in the entire DGD discography. All in all, I'm a little disappointed that Melon didn't really appreciate Parody Catharsis. While the break is pretty outlandish by Will, the rest of the song is beautiful, especially the ending. Tear-jerking, that ending is.
I don't get the criticism on variety at all if I want to hear the same song with different titles I would listen to stuff like 21 pilots. A varietyless album is fucking boring
this album really had to grow on me, like my first instinct was a 5/10 bc so much of it just noised together. but I realize I feel this way with a lot of DGD until I take the time to give each individual song its due, and then I discover I love them! DGD for me isn't album music, I can't hear several new songs from them at once. but taken one at a time most of the tracks on afterburner turned out to be bangers. also "multiple stab wounds yeah" is absolutely what makes three wishes good
I don’t think “trickery” or “gimmicky” are all that fair takes. Since their Happiness album the core of their music is experimenting with different sounds and genres. I guess a more fair take would be that they missed the mark on incorporating other genres, not faulting then for trying to experiment.
As a fan of the band myself, I can't say I'm not surprised by this review. I will say kudos for going out of your way to review a band you don't typically enjoy though.
As a massive fanboy of DGD since 2008, I respect Anthony's opinion and agree with some points but disagree with others. I love the angelic highs and the sporadic yet hellish lows in the vocals which nearly define the 2010's post-hardcore/Swancore sub-genre. Will Swan's guitar work at the beginning of Prisoner is supposed to convey the feeling "The Devil went Down to Georgia"-esque as it defines the cover theme of the album, DGD's take on Hell. Will has also rapped on DGD albums as early as "Deathstar" or DGD's self-titled album. Happiness was a masterful fusion of groove, funk, and post-hardcore. A lot of his gripes seem to be staples of the band, so maybe they're just not for him? It can't be that they're objectively bad seeing as they sell out shows, sell albums, top charts, and have a growing fanbase consistently for 15 years.
HUGE fan here as well. One thing that casual listeners dont know is alot of the lyrics/songs are intertwined with the music videos/other albums so i can see why it gets confusing. Example. Strawberry's wake gives context to the lyrics "multiple stab wounds" in Three Wishes
I'm kinda having a hard time understanding how he hates the math rock guitars here when he liked very similar guitar work on The Dusk in Us by Converge
Wait, this jabroni likes Polyphia, but not DGD? The same Polyphia who is nothing BUT guitar "wankery," and "trap beats?" Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Its frustrating, but Im sure DGD has become such a meme for him and his channel that he either has to keep acting like DGD are bad, or he cant hear because his fanbase has him all gassed up.
You have some valid points, but I really enjoyed this album. I didn’t skip a single song. Mothership is my favorite album, and I agree with your points on that record
“Soulless math leads” and “tonal nonsense” are not ways I (or anyone who isn’t deaf) would use to describe Will Swan’s guitar playing. I give this review a 2/10 and the album a 7.5/10
I enjoy Anthony’s Dgd reviews until he devolves into mockingly reading off the lyrics. It’s funny but it’s also kind of stupid. Also “I personally don’t like the vocalist, therefore it’s terrible” is always his biggest complaint with them. It’s a fair reason to not enjoy the band but it’s still such a bland take.
i feel he keeps looking in the wrong place. It's obvious he will never like DGD properly. Yet i see why, i can identify the element he doesn't like, and i understand him. He seriously should check out Secret Band, i feel that's more under Anthony's alley.
I’ve been a big fan of DDG throughout all the years and lineup changes, and I can honestly say I’d rather have you give a medium/bad review than none. The exposure is worth it. The points you make are almost always valid but don’t actually take away anything if someone’s going to actually like the groove of it anyway. And yeah, Afterburner isn’t the flagship of DGD’s discography by any means. Would be interested to see what you think of their first couple records honestly.
@@doomkid360 I feel like that's no longer true. I got into the band back in 07, but that was 13 years ago at this point. I think the majority of their present-day fans got into them during the Tilian years. I'd be interested to hear what Melon thinks of their early work. I don't listen to any of their post-DBM2 stuff and even WISIRO is top tier for me, so I'm a rarity in that regard haha.
I love DGD but Melon is mostly right. I really like a lot of the screaming on the album. I really want to hear a review of a Secret Band release from TND.
No it just sounds like shit to him...there is really not much to get. I either like or dislike something, who gives a shit that there is "more to it"? A turd is a turd, nothing changes that.
I want to hear about melon bois opinion on Secret Band is, considering the lyrical content is AS ridiculous as DGD and is arguably more interesting to hear.
@@CanGamers To be fair, many genres are full of lack of innovation and he's praised stuff in the past. It's not so much that as it is a band in a genre not doing it as much justice as they previously had, haha.
@@TheMetalTempestYT To me, you can either try and innovate in the genre or be try to be a shining example of the genre at its best. This is neither. It's still insane to me that there are so many math rock bands still forming and playing the same stuff I listened to when I was 14 or 15 in the early 2000s.
@@CanGamers as someone who has post-hardcore as my favourite genre. I just have to ask. Is it so extremely important to "innovate"? Most post-hardcore bands are dead or changed their sound completely. We're happy we still have great bands like DGD out here doing their thing. The album sounds different from all their earlier albums, so I really don't see the problem.
As soon as I saw this thumbnail I thought "great the melon is attempting another dgd review I cant wait to see the 1 out of 10 WHY DO YOU EVEN BOTHER DUDE" but hey I'm surprised at the 4. Nice
2020 scores: 0/10: 1 - [ Green Day - Father of All ] 1/10: 1 - [ Sam Hunt - Southside ] 2/10: 0 3/10: 1 4/10: 9 5/10: 15 6/10: 9 7/10: 13 8/10: 16 9/10: 2 - Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter - Black Dresses - Peaceful as Hell 10/10: 0 [NOT GOOD/10]: 4 - [ Justin Bieber - Changes ] - [ Lil Baby - My Turn] - [ Joyner Lucas - ADHD ] - [ Danzig Sings Elvis ] IT'S GOOD/10 (from fantano channel): 3 - [ Disclosure - Ecstasy ] - [ Haru Nemuri - Lovetheism ] - [ Dirty Projectors - Windows Open Ep ] Classics: 5 - [ Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope ] - [ Talk Talk - Laughing Stock ] - [ Converge - Jane Doe ] - [ My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade ] - [ Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury ] Custom scores: 0 Second take: 1 - [ Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ] - 6/10 "Controversial": 8 - [ Tame Impala - The Slow Rush ] =================>6/10 - [ Grimes - Miss Anthropocen ] ===================>4/10 - [ Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake ] ====================>4/10 - [ Machine Girl - U-Void Synthesizer] ==============> 5/10 - [ Childish Gambino - 3.15.20 ]====================>4/10 - [ Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud ] ====================>4/10 - [ Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters ] =============>7/10 - [ Westside Gunn - Pray for Paris ] =================>6/10 Cal cameos:1 - Green Day - Father of All This is the 78th review of 2020 Comment copied and pasted by“Andrew K” please don't hate on him :]
Mothership is my favorite dgd album because of its cohesiveness. On initial listen of Afterburner, I did feel underwhelmed but it has been growing on me as I listen more. Thanks for the honesty, one day you’ll be dancing with Gavin.
Yeah same here. You have to realize though that DGD's music can be super complex at the time with the insane vocals colliding with the amazing instrumentals. Sometimes it takes more than one listen to catch on. I now think its a little better than Artificial Selection.
4:14 - 4:18 Yeah, It's always weird when a subconscious belief/assumption you didn't even know you had, gets disproven. I assumed he was standing, but I didn't realize I made that assumption, until I saw the chair.
You tend to like the less entricate, energetic, and colorful Dance Gaven Dance given your opinion on Instant Gratification V.S their next 2 albums. Their mathy guitar passages aren't just "guitar wankery"--if that what you really think you could literally say the same thing about most mathcore bands who like to stay busy with the frequency of notes and rhythms.... I will agree the band's discography took a nosedive after Mothership (which to be honest was a bit of a detour from their original sound with how mainstream it became with even more hip-hop/rap influences) but I think you simply were partial to Mothership because it was easier to digest. If you don't like what Dance Gaven Dance's sound is to you, that's fine--but calling out an artist because their work is too "busy" in any subgenre of math-related music is pretty counterintuitively speaking due to the nature of the genre itself lol
@@jacksonkronland5676 Surprises me. I'm a DGD fan and I gave the record a 7/10 and still got dislikes/quite a bit of negativity surrounding my review, and mine was arguably more detailed/longer due to having more personal experience/investment in the band. guess it depends sometimes, haha
I'm kinda amazed you actually went through the trouble of reviewing this! I knew you wouldn't like it, lol. I'm a big fan of DGD but even I can admit Afterburner is a bit of a mixed bag. A couple of sections on the album strike me heavily as gimmicky and out-of-place, like Tilian singing in Spanish or the sudden rap verse on Into the Sunset. The "whoa-oh" chorus on Three Wishes strikes me as the type of safe, middle of the road pop vocal performance you could hear playing in a Kohl's store. But for me the album seems to have these groaner moments in equal measure to its bangers; the choruses on Prisoner and Strawberry's Wake are sticky and energizing, Will's guitar work on Lyrics Lie and Night Sway is frenzied while still sounding slick. Tilian's voice blends wonderfully with the vocal features from Andrew Wells and Bilmuri. It's got a lot of good, and a lot of "meh."
To be fair, these are reviews based on opinion. It's okay to have a different one. This album definitely grew on me. That being said, another album that really grew on me and eventually went on repeat for me was The Amity Affliction's newest album
It’s very obvious that this man just doesn’t understand DGD for what they are. The biggest surprise though is that he doesn’t like Tilian’s vocals. I can’t fathom that someone thinks his voice is bad.
You must really be bored to actually review their album and are looking for the negative backlash from their fans. You’ve been doing nothing but bait on social media as of late so I’m really not surprised.
I feel like the difference in opinion is that a lot of DGD fans approach things from a very granular perspective, partially because a disproportionate number of DGD fans are guitarists/vocalists/etc. themselves that often try to emulate DGD. Hence all the “what about Will’s leads” or “what about Tilian’s vocals” comments. Fantano looks at the music as a sum of its parts. I think that’s where the issues arise. DGD fans find the music as technically very impressive and musically unique, e.g the arrangements of poppy vocals vs hardcore vocals, and Will’s virtuoso leads. However, Fantano tends to think this technical prowess and ambitious arrangements comes at the sacrifice of musicality. Musicality is a lot more of a subjective and qualitative measurement, which is why you get him calling it “tacky” or “grating” - basically saying it’s in poor taste in his eyes. Really it’s just a different perspective, but it’s the metric a lot of the more mainstream reviewing platforms would use. For example, I highly doubt Pitchfork or Robert Christgau would think much differently of DGD than Melon. DGD is not a critics band, but that’s fine. I think DGD fans approach music really differently and have really different taste than Pitchfork hipsters. Unfortunately there aren’t a ton of mainstream reviews of this album by Pitchfork, Christgau, COS, NME, etc - only the same sites that mostly review “Swancore” and basically always give good reviews to DGD. These same sites, e.g. Teal Cheese, New Fury are almost always at odds with the Pitchforks of the world. TLDR: I think DGD fans including the blogs that focus on this brand of post-hardcore are wired very differently musically than most major music critics. Just some thoughts...
As a heavy DGD fan, appreciate you doing a review Melon, even if I do disagree with most of what you said. Hope you’ll keep covering them on future releases!
