Some bands make it really hard to criticize them for any lack of originality. Whether or not Daylight Dies are bothered by comparisons to _Brave Murder Day_-era Katatonia, the fact is both their previous album _No Reply_ and this _Dismantling Devotion_ are essentially livelier variations and expansions based on much of what _BMD_ was all about. The main differences the listener will immediately notice include a strong, clean production, plenty of harmonic guitar solos and occasional clean vocals (speaking of which, the new vocalist fits right in and does a great job). The tortured yet powerful rasped vocals and the emotional guitar lead style take you straight back to old Katatonia, but I don't mean this in a bad way -- it's not like that particular style has been done to death, and Daylight Dies are more than just good at it: _Dismantling Devotion_ really is a highly competent and enjoyable album. Truth be told, it's good enough to force me to make an exception here; I won't really care much about originality in this case, and I won't really penalize Daylight Dies as much for that reason. They do develop their own thing based on all I described above, so I'll let it rest.

In addition to the excellent performance by the band, nicely wrapped in an impeccable production job, Daylight Dies have fine-tuned their music to the point of a remarkably good balance between the various elements that they use. The album is never slow for too long, or too upbeat either; it's neither melodic ad nauseam nor does it bludgeon you with blunt riffs throughout. Of course either you like the fundamental style that runs through the songs or you don't, but as far as their genre of choice, the band have really got a lot of things right in building _Dismantling Devotion_ -- of which placing the clean sung "Solitary Refinement" midway through the album is merely an example. Some may find the album somewhat lengthy given its tendency to repeat some patterns, but I find it no major drawback. The fact is Daylight Dies have continued to evolve and mature since _No Reply_, and _Dismantling Devotion_ is a very accomplished album that should prevail as one of the melodic doom highlights of 2006.