Weekly Update #15 – April 28, 2024

FEATURED ALBUM
Eidola // Eviscerate
Released: April 12, 2024

I’ve known about Eidola for a long time, but for some reason I totally wrote them off. I heard a song or two and decided they weren’t for me. Well, that was a mistake. As Shaq would say, “I owe you an apology. I wasn’t really familiar with your game.”

To be fair, after going back through their catalogue, I do think this is Eidola’s best album so far, and that’s probably why it won me over so easily. It’s just a blast to listen to.

Eidola’s sound fits under the general “swancore” genre. It makes sense – they’re signed to Blue Swan Records, the label founded by Will Swan, lead guitarist and general tastemaker of Dance Gavin Dance. So it should come as no surprise that, like all swancore bands, Eidola has some similarities to Dance Gavin Dance.

That being said, Eidola differentiates themselves in a few ways. The main one is their singer, Andrew Wells. He is incredibly talented, bordering on angelic at times, but he is more grounded than Tilian (DGD’s singer). If you’ve ever wished that Tilian would just tone it down a little, you’re going to love Eidola. Andrew Wells is super impressive, but he’s more subtle about it. He also has some pretty solid screams that he adds every once in a while.

Eidola is also a bit more cohesive in terms of how their songs fit together. There are fewer experimental, “out there” moments, but that provides a smoother listening experience than the last couple DGD albums. Matthew Dommer, their screamer, also provides meaningful lyrics that build the story of each song, which is definitely different from the nonsense that Jon Mess is always on about (even though we all love it).

By far my favorite songs on this album are “No Weapon Formed Shall Prosper” and “Who of You Will Persevere?” Both tracks have incredible choruses and I really like the dynamic between the cleans and screams. There’s a sense of journey as the songs progress. “No Weapon Formed Shall Prosper” especially builds a sense of tension.

As a final note, we might see a lot more of Andrew Wells in the future. He officially joined Dance Gavin Dance as their rhythm guitarist in 2021 after touring with them for several years, and he filled in as their singer when Tilian stepped away from the band in 2022. Well in case you didn’t know, Tilian was just kicked out of DGD, and it seems like a strong possibility that Andrew Wells might permanently fill that gap. I’m not sure how to say this, but Tilian brought a certain sex appeal to DGD’s image. Andrew Wells is also an extremely handsome guy that would easily maintain that same image.

He would obviously have huge shoes to fill vocally, and I’m not sure if he can hit the highs that Tilian can, but he is talented enough to make it work. He’s probably better suited for songs from the Jonny Craig era. But that’s the thing, DGD has had so many different eras, and we’re moving into a new post-Tilian era. Nobody knows how things will turn out, but DGD has made miracles happen before.

Playlist of New Songs

Quick playlist highlights:

– Born of Osiris continues to embrace a more upbeat, cheery identity. I’m pretty into it.

– Knocked Loose featured Poppy on their new single. I think I missed the boat on her – I don’t really get the appeal and her screams don’t sound good live, but at least the song is heavy. I’ll put a live clip of Poppy butchering her screaming parts down below in the Emmure section.

– We already have another song from In Hearts Wake. This is their first track since the departure of their clean vocalist.

– I think mentioning Silence/156 in my Alpha Wolf review last week summoned them. And as if to prove me wrong, they have added some variance to their vocal approach and added some cleans. I love this for them. Excited to see where they go from here.

– This song from Chiodos isn’t new, but it came up on my shuffle this week and it’s so good. All of their heavy songs are top tier.

– For All I Am has put out a few singles in recent years, but they’ve been really quiet for the last decade. Kind of a fun throwback if you listened to them back in the day.

– Dealer‘s new track kind of threw me off. It sounds like an intro or maybe an interlude. Very surprised because this is likely the last single before the new album comes out. Not sure what they were going for with this one.

DRAMA – How Many More Times Can I Talk About Dance Gavin Dance?

Dance Gavin Dance is single handedly fueling the drama section each week. I swear this will be the last one (probably).

This is kind of a mish mash of related thoughts so bear with me. First, I just want to highlight that Tilian has had one of the most insane glow ups of all time.

The image on the left is not cherry picked at all. It’s just a still shot from a “bus invaders” interview he did in 2010 with his first band, Tides of Man.

I mention it because he brought a “sexiness” to Dance Gavin Dance that they didn’t have before, and you could see the band start to lean into it over time. But now that Tilian’s been fired, we’ll see how his replacement fares in the “good looks” department. If it ends up being Andrew Wells from Eidola, he might even be an improvement.

Ok, so then I started diving into Tilian’s life, and I learned that he recently got married to Victoria Potter. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because she was previously married to Danny Worsnop (singer of Asking Alexandria).

So here’s the timeline. Tilian is engaged to a random woman in 2019 and they later call off the engagement. He has multiple sexual assault allegations and admits to sleeping with several women in June 2022. And then in December 2023 he got married (not just engaged) to Victoria Potter.

On her side of things, she met Danny Worsnop in 2018 at a VIP meet and greet before a show, they got married in 2019, and they got divorced in 2022. She then married Tilian in December 2023.

I don’t know man, that seems preeeettttyyyy fast. And she has a horrible track record – might as well be speedrunning failed marriages with famous singers. Of course we wish the married couple all the best, but I hope you got a prenup dude.

From the Archive

I was on a big Emmure kick this week. It’s wild that people used to hate on Frankie and say that he was a bad vocalist. No joke, his live vocals are some of the best I’ve heard – he sounds exactly the same as he does on the albums. Enjoy this clip from Warped Tour 2010 of one of my favorite songs. The intro makes it even better.

Here’s the clip of Poppy screaming her part at a recent Knocked Loose show. It’s crazy that modern production can make anybody sound good on an album. I’m honestly not even trying to punch down here, but it really shows that screaming is an art that takes practice.

Slipknot Might Be Good Again?

Slipknot played a 300-cap show to kick off their 25th anniversary and they sound surprisingly good. They debuted their new era of masks and Corey has dreadlocks again. They’re also back to wearing red jumpsuits, another callback to their origins.

The best comment I saw said, “I hope Slipknot playing with the red jumpsuits means they’ll release good music again.” And I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been a massive hater on all of their recent albums so I’m praying that they go back to their sound from the first two records.

Part of the reason I think their recent releases are so weak is because of Corey’s vocals – his screams have gotten super choppy. But he sounds really good here and I hope that means he’s finding his flow again.

I think this is also Slipknot’s first show with their new drummer. People are pretty convinced it’s Eloy Casagrande – he was the drummer of Sepultura for the last 13 years. Maybe all the pieces are finally coming together.