The Dying Daylights

Our Finnish guys are back with their fourth release only 18 months after the release of Downhearted. If you're going to college, you know that when you're in your fourth year you are considered as a senior and that it's your last year, therefore you're supposed to give the best of yourself. I am not sure the guys from Charon delivered their best with their new album, because it's an album that sounds more or less like the previous one. So if you're looking for originality, then I suggest you pass on this one. On the other hand, if you're looking for another great gothic album then I suggest you get that one. Just as its predecessor, The Dying Daylights is an album full of dying gothic melodies of the best vintage. Ok, with this release Charon continues carving out a solid niche in the world of gothic metal, but this new album doesn't show a major leap forward from their previous albums in terms of songwriting and performance. They still manage however to hold the listener's attention (at least mine) from the beginning to the very end and there's again very little to complain about. The Dying Daylights, such as Downhearted or Tearstained, isn't an album that needs more than one listen to be considered as a great album, and just like their two previous album showed that they could easily sustain the test of time, I have no doubt this new album also will. The album finishes with a cover of The King Is Dead, not the one from Nazareth, but by Swedish band Kent (???). The digipack edition also contains a couple of bonus songs Built for my ghosts and Re-collected, and this just makes me mad. What about people who can't get the digipack ??? Although I gave this album only 85, I think it's as good as their previous album, but some time ago I pointed out that I wanted to be more severe while quoting albums, but also because this album doesn't offer anything new from their last release. So, to sum up, because I am more severe I would give this album 90, but because The Dying Daylights doesn't show an expected progression of this talented band into greater musical maturity I dropped the quote down to 85.