Artist: Diorama
Title: Even The Devil Doesn't Care
Genre: Music
Release Date: 25th January 2013
Label: Accession Records
Album Review
Having escaped our cubes we're making the first steps into a world that has drastically changed since we've last paid it a real visit. It is then that we begin to realize that we shielded ourselves against hurting influences from the outside. It is like they say in "Paradise Los" "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell. But if it is hell then it must have changed to a degree where 'Even The Devil Doesn't Care' which is, as it happens, the title of the latest instalment in the DIORAMA discography, about 3 years after 'Cubed'. It is in many ways a turning point. It's drawing the lines more clearly than have ever been and pictures getting at the same time overflown with a million shades of colours and riddles, but as i said there's a line. The other important step is that this is in fact the first band album, meaning that you can hear for the first time that is has been conceived and recorded in a collaborative effort. On stage we've seen them acting as a whole for so long now, and no we're finally have it on record.
I'm going to stretch your patience a little longer before i get to the audible content, but i'd like to spill some lines on the artwork first. It visualizes something I mentioned earlier above. These paintings are at the same time abstract and conventional in the most positive way. They will force you to contextualize their lines with what is inherited with the lyrical content and equally important, the music as a whole. Even if, at this very moment I'm writing this, I'm thinking that i barely scratched the surface of what they keep hidden, they're helping a lot to get a glimpse of the world created here. Some of the knowledge I will keep to myself some finds its way into this review which is now finally coming to the important part: The music! The first track 'Maison du Tigre, a song which we have been treated to live already, is pushing you relentlessly into a surge that ultimately leads to a daring dance on the volcano while the lava is close to overstepping the borders and burn you completely. But you, you just keep dancing while from the outside smokescreens are thrown at you to blur your vision and shape your mind from the truth that "Mother Nature lost her child".
In the end you can overcome everything to end this charade and wipe the slate clean. This one's for the most part a clean electronic adventure wrapped in a vast spiral of kick bass drums melodies dispelling in textures and roaring guitar ornaments. The following 'Hope' I would like to call a "whoop whoop" song, not in an attempt to trivialize its meaning, but in the way the rhythm at its moderate pace makes me wanna move in a certain way to it- Again, a song with guitars, i think there's a pattern developing here, and putting a simple word into the spotlight that can lift you up or tear you down in a blink. A neat club track is awaiting you with the following 'The Scale' which at the same time starts etching a pretty apt social picture about an elite and their way of living on the fast lane of life, looking at everything from a bird's perspective where a skyline can be looking peaceful. But the collapse can't be far away, it never is. 'My Favourite Song' is one of those DIORAMA tracks that is very rough and sharp on the edges and certainly has no intention of making it easy for you getting past them. A bass rumbling, a guitar cutting and vocals meandering in unforeseen ways.
'The Expatriate' kicks in with widely gravitating bass drums flowing into what is becoming a very organic sounding, beat-driven song, reflecting a picture of a driven character, ambitious, always smiling in front of the camera and refusing no challenge. There's a flip-side to it though, it always is. It is the mere fact that that fame and power are bought with something, and you'll never get it for free. Is fame really worth selling your soul to the devil? We've talked about pictures earlier already. I'm mentioning this now because 'Summit' is a picture of a band song where the heavy acoustic drums are taking over very early in the song, mingling with flute and a very natural melancholy contained within the song. Rippled by the harshness of the guitar and completed with piano and vocals. You can so hear the chemistry between the guys here and there's hoping we all will have the pleasure to see this one live. 'Weiss und Anthrazit' as the mandatory German song on the album fluidly blends bubbling minimal electronic and acoustic instrumentation with hallmarks revealing how simple life could be if you would only separate things between black and white, or anthracite for that matter. It would also be a poor life narrowing things down to two categories, missing all the shades that make life worth living.
Heavy and like fireballs raining down on earth there comes 'When We Meet again in Hell'. Everything about its initial things is made to repel, to place sticks and stones in your way until the truth sonically rolls your way like a thunderstorm hidden behind grey clouds of deception conceived by just a few powerful to keep things the way they've ever been, I may add that while I'M sitting here writing this I'm listening to this track through my headphones and can't stop nodding my head and think how complete this one sounds, and how it has the potential of becoming a live favourite. A core phrase of 'The Long Way Home From The Party' is "...the night sky calls for decisions that need to be taken". It resolves the doubts and fears the song is introduced wit while surrounded by low-key introspection. The chorus radiates strength, impersonated with the raw and straight-forward attitude. Sometimes less is more and 'Hellogoodbye' calls for less...less nonsense talk if there's actually nothing to say to fill the time with more substantial things because "Everyone is born with a meaningful life"
A classic DIORAMA track actually. In good company with club fillers of the 'Why?' category to name just one particular. If you listen very carefully to the guitar part on the chorus you'll notice a certain Western-ish attitude to the way Sash is playing. Awesome! Close to the end of the new album comes a song that appears like a dream: 'My Justice For All'. I'm using this word on purpose as it best describes its essence. From the very beginning there's dark-orange sunlight piercing through the clouds as a tableau unfolds that vastly differs from the way we usually picture perfection, everlasting happiness. Juxtaposed with stagnation, nothing ever changing you start to see things from a different perspective and the will to stand up finds fertile soil. 'Over' is the last in a long line of songs and shifts the weight into organic territory once more where the electronic ingredients serve as flourishes. IT puts things to an end more then one way and asks the just question "When is enough really enough?" Where are we drawing the line that is never to be crossed?
Well, maybe I could write a thorough conclusion right now. It's just that i think mine has become really obvious if you are still reading this and I'm hoping 'Even The Devil Doesn't Care' will be seen for what it is...A leap for DIORAMA as a band and a reason for their audience to be proud about how far they've come.
Tracklist
01. Maison Du Tigre - 6:06
02. Hope - 5:05
03. The Scale - 5:34
04. My Favourite Song - 5:35
05. The Expatriate - 4:35
06. Summitt - 7:20
07. Weiss und Anthrazit - 5:26
08. When We Meet Again In Hell - 6:36
09. The Long Way Home From The Party - 5:14
10. Hellogoodbye - 6:01
11. My Justice For All - 5:31
12. Over - 5:30
Line-Up
Torben Wendt
Felix Marc
Sash Fiddler
Marquess
Website
http://www.diorama-music.com / https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diorama/20921056622
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 10
Sound: 10
Artwork: 10
Total: 10 / 10
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