December Dies Alone - When Memories Faught To Dissolve

December Dies Alone - When Memories Faught To Dissolve

When Memories Faught to Dissolve is a two track EP that was released by Lebanese metalcore/melodic hardcore band December Dies Alone. This EP was released in 2010 by the band themselves. When people think of Lebanese metalcore, what do they think of? Well, quite frankly, nothing. There have been no bands that have made it into the big time as far as metal is concerned. But the thing is that December Dies Alone could change all this! These guys have quite a catchy beat to their sound and melody, the two main ingredients to some good metalcore/melodic hardcore. Could this be the big break Lebanon has been waiting for, because this band has huge potential.

Before jumping to this band’s sound, I’d like to present a question. What makes good metalcore? Is it song structure? Melody? Or the combination of clean and dirty vocals that are used correctly? If you have answered yes to any or all of those questions you are going to like December Dies Alone. These guys are an excellent example of what a decent package of soft metalcore/melodic hardcore is about. And it’s obvious that these guys don’t aim to be “da best, most talented band eva” because weather people like the statistics or not, 9/10 bands who think this fail, and fail miserably. This is probably one of the things that can be inferred by this band and it’s the fact that they are focused on making good music rather than making the most popular.

These guys seem musically minded in the way they have structured their music. Everything is in the right spot and the execution of this is almost perfect. Now execution is important and it shouldn’t, ever be put behind composition of their music. Those who cannot execute their music because they have exceeded and over estimated their musical abilities are the ones who play. December Dies Alone have played it quite safe and quite well as far as their execution is concerned which is something that not many bands are willing to do and I applaud them for doing this.

The next thing that I have picked up in their music is the sense of emotion in their music. Emotion? Emo? Please don’t be turned off by this, but these guys do have some of the characteristics of a screamo band which is mainly due to their vocal styles rather than the music itself. Although the emotional atmosphere that is presented isn’t depressive (it’s actually not depressive at all) it does transmit feeling into the listener. So please don’t think that this is just some kind of mediocre emo band because they still pack more punch than the likes is Alesana. There is something more here that promotes emotion than just the vocals. It’s all the ambient sound that they have inducted in the tracks. Such as the sound of rain at the start of Coldest December, and people associate rain with; sadness, misery, depression, ect. Even the track title suggests that emotion is part of the music, Coldest December… go figure.

Another thing that these guys do that not many other bands seem to do is change their vocal techniques. Is it just me or does everyone see the link between having more than one vocal technique and success in the “core” industry. Because there aren’t that many bands out there that have made it into the big time with little changes in their vocal techniques, so it cannot be a coincidence. Especially with a genre like melodic hardcore where the vocals take centre stage. 

But, there is just this one thing that lets this band down so hard and that is the recording quality of their music. I know that this cannot be avoided at times, but it makes me sad when there are bands out there like these guys who have tones of potential, only to be ruined be poor recording quality. Because the recording quality is so poor that is blocks out some of the other musical elements, I am obliged to penalize them due to this. I strongly encourage this band to get some high quality recording if they ever want to get off the ground.

Overall, this is one way to start your music career and it is probably the most common. The best thing about releasing a demo such as this is that if this turns out terrible, you can always get a second chance. These guys have their second chance, the chance to get some high quality recording because their music has got so much potential to be better. Their song writing is almost perfect, they are tight and unrepetitive. I think that big things could come happen with this band, and Lebanon could see something for the first time come onto the world stage. I give When Memories Faught a 13/20. I really am curious to see what these guys bring out next, because the next thing they bring out could make or break them.