MP3 Review: Date With The Knife "In a box on Mount Victoria"

[Name Your Price Download // https://datewiththeknife.bandcamp.com/album/in-a-box-on-mount-victoria]

After nearly two years, Date With The Knife is back with a new song and it is ten minutes long.   I'm pretty sure that their name also used to be one word but that's okay, as long as they keep making amazing music they can call themselves whatever they want.

We open with sharp guitars and then crunchy chords coming through in starts and stops.    This turns into a flurry of screaming that makes me think we're going into either screamo or post-rock.   The music grows more complex and the way it seems to roll through like waves is both fun and also reminds me of something like Coheed and Cambria or Chiodos.   The distorted screams still come out as vocals and I'm not sure I'd call this post-rock or screamo but some new idea in between those two perhaps.   There are these great guitar notes in the background, but it moves at a slower pace, closer to sludge, even though the vocals just want to rip you apart.   It's like how villains in horror movies can't always run fast but can do optimal damage.

In some ways now, even with the drums and melodies near the three minute mark, I'm thinking of this as being like something the Deftones would have crafted before the year 2000.   As we drive past the four minute marker I can tell you this already feels like it's going to be more music than vocals and that is never a bad thing with any band for me.   As it breaks down near the 4:30 minute spot I can begin to think of As Cities Burn.    The singing coming up on five minutes is more serious now, though the screams can still be heard faintly, and it has that hypnotic state of Pink Floyd singing about not needing education.  

I almost feel as if this song was split into two parts, with the first being more of the screaming, then that sort of bridge into the more stern singing, but now as we hit the six minute mark there are audio clips of people talking.   This still feels like a portion of the second movement though and I am in no way implying that this should have been broken into two different songs it's just worth noting that it seems to start at a Point A and then shift into a Point B, which you will hopefully be able to hear as well as I did.

Around the 7:30 marker the audio samples cease and the screaming comes back which is much more like the first part of the song than the second part and I'm not going to think of that as being a third act as it simply just feels like a matter of everything coming full circle.    Guitar notes come through quietly and then begin to build as we approach nine minutes.   My idea of there being a Point A and a Point B-- yeah, well, Point A and Point B just met for the conclusion of this song which just feels like it has more going on in it than a lot of artists put into their entire albums these days.

I'd kick myself if I didn't say this, but does anyone else find it odd that this comes after their first release and the names could seemingly be connected?   And by that I mean it feels like we're saying different lines to the same story and so far- based upon titles- we have "I read a book about a mountain in a box on Mount Victoria".   If the next piece of music released by DWTK is something to the effect of "While My Love Slept Quietly" or something of that nature which could be added onto this double-title I've already created I will be impressed and a little scared.