Dance With the Dead - Driven to Madness

Dance with the Dead

Driven to Madness

Generally speaking, if you're a fan of synthwave, you've probably heard of Dance with the Dead (DWTD). They've been around for quite sometime and are generally regarded as early pioneers in the darksynth style. They where among the first, perhaps even the first, to fuse hard rocking metal guitars with flowing snythesizer melodies. This album continues in that vein and offers fans of the style more of the same dance worthy rythms with distorted guitar crunch.

The only flaw, if we can even call it that, is that it's not a huge step forward in terms of sound or style. DWTD hits every trope we have come to expect from them, and that's not a bad thing. It seems like a lot of these veterans of synthwave have locked in their trademarked style and are now refining it with a few minor additions. Here we have DWTD employing the same horror movie inspired electronics propelled forward by heavy guitars toward a floor that we can all dance to. It does seem like the edges have been rounded a little in favor of more atmosphere. And, maybe it's just me, but there's to be very careful and minute experimenting with transitions and different rythms. It all adds up to what I stated earlier: a veteran of the scene refining the style we are all familiar with except with a few minor additions.

This is great music and great fun. It's a worthy addition to the DWTD catalogue. I rather like how it climbs in intensity towards the latter half of the album. The John Carpenter voice introduction was a very nice touch.