Album Review: Dayshifter – Hiraeth (Self Released)

Newcastle-based melodic hardcore five-piece Dayshifter will release their debut studio album ‘Hiraeth’ on June 8th 2023. The album centres itself around the themes of mental health, depression and anxiety. Through songs about love, loss, death and the inner workings of the mind during life’s darkest moments, the album aims to break down the stigma surrounding mental health and encourage open communication.

There’s no shortage of heartfelt, pensive, and emotive metal out there these days so the only way to truly define the quality of what a band is doing is to note the authenticity of what they are expressing in their music. Does it sound believable? Does it reach into your soul and grip tightly, but comfortingly? How does it make you feel?

This is being mentioned because it’s the feelings that Dayshifter create in you that matter more than anything else. On the one hand, this band can absolutely wreck and that is awesome sounding, but on the other, they ooze genuineness when it comes to talking about mental health. Not just through the lyrical content either, expressing a myriad of feelings with massive melodies, and anthemic heaviness.

If there’s one thing this album leaves you with it, it is the feeling that you will have connected with an artist in a way many struggles to these days. There can be no higher praise than that. Yet, if you’re more interested in pit-starting hardcore-infused chaos, brutal breakdowns, and hair-tearing heaviness, than Dayshifter will deliver. It just so happens that there might be some tears flowing alongside the sweat and blood.

There’s nothing negative to say here. This is a thing of beauty and a simply outstanding arrival for this band. Pick a song, there are ten, and it will hit you with all the force of a meteor falling out of space. It is undoubtably an album of the year contender and everyone who hears it will be raving about it. Dayshifter have arrived and what an entrance it is.

Dayshifter – Hiraeth Track Listing:

1. Emerald Green
2. Holy Ghost
3. 1936
4. Rain (Forever)
5. Rosé
6. Old Souls, Young Hearts
7. Anywhere but Here
8. Buried in Grey
9. Hiraeth
10. Fever Dreaming

Links

Spotify | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Apple Music