Dance Gavin Dance's 'Afterburner' Is Another Amazing Display From One Of The Most Talented Bands Out

Everytime I go into a new Dance Gavin Dance record I feel like a little kid who was just given a massive chocolate cake and an Xbox. These guys have quickly become one of my favorite bands, and deservedly so as they take one of my favorite genres of music (Post-Hardcore) and transform it into an delectably unique blend of styles. They’re one of the most eclectic and colorful musical artists I’ve ever heard in my life, and it seems that every time they put out new music they manage to grow even more. They put on a fantastic live show that I would have seen three times now if they hadn’t delayed the Afterburner Tour, as they’re all some of the most talented musicians in the world right now as far as I’m concerned. They’ve got a dense and prolific discography that’s home to over 100 songs that I’ve probably sunk well over 100 hours of my life into. They are such an unbelievably talented group that people seem to either hate or love so much that they couldn’t stop listening to the band on the daily if they tried. Thankfully, I fall into that second category, and I fall into it hard. These guys have one of the most addictively delightful and perfect sounds I’ve ever heard in my countless hours of listening to music, and Afterburner is no exception.

As the band’s fifth album with lead singer Tilian Pearson and no lineup changes whatsoever, it seems the band’s days of mismatched band member drama are long over in favor of consistently releasing game changing material with the same cast of characters. It feels so good to finally see this band settled into a groove without the inconsistencies of the early days, as nostalgic as I am for some of those awesome early albums. Afterburner continues that streak of untouchable quality that the band has had since 2016’s Mothership, and focuses on that same sound they initially perfected on that breakout hit of a record. As that release and 2018’s Artificial Selection rounded out my top 3 DGD albums, joined by the beautiful Happiness, I was really excited to see if the band would be able to maintain that level of quality here. I mean seriously, I’m really struggling to think of many other artists that have kept up this level of untouchable quality for this long, but all my fears were completely extinguished by this wildly fun record. I’m not entirely sure yet if this one is going to knock Mothership out of my top 3 favorite albums by the band, but I can definitely say that I think this one sounds like it was the most fun for the band to make out of all their releases. Afterburner finds the band trying out so many different production techniques, vocal styles and even different languages that makes it abundantly clear that they are having the time of their lives making this music for their fans.

This record has quite a fantastic selection of songs that line up with the standaard DGD formula they’ve had going on for a while now, and many of these tracks are some of my personal favorites they’ve ever put out. Granted it would be impossible for me to make a list of favorites any smaller than my top 30, but plenty of these songs are in that list nonetheless. Three of the four singles Lyrics Lie, Three Wishes and Strawberry’s Wake remind me a lot of the Artificial Selection singles like Midnight Crusade and Son of Robot. They build on that formula and give us some super catchy moments with these tracks, and all three of which have grown on me substantially since their initial pre-album release. One in a Million, Parallels and Night Sway are two more that are fairly in line with what you’d expect from a DGD release in 2020 as well, and to nobody’s surprise they definitely withhold the band’s standard of quality as well. The vocal melodies on both of these songs are super catchy and infectious in all the best ways possible, and they once again serve as reminders of just how timelessly fun DGD is. It’s super invigorating and refreshing to hear them coming up with such original and clever ideas within their own signature sound still. It’s rare that a band can continue to deliver songs with similar sonic presences like that whilst never sounding like they’ve run out of steam for a millisecond. Fans of the Jon Mess side project Secret Band are going to find plenty to love in the extraordinarily heavy Born to Fail and especially Say Hi as well. The screaming breakdowns on these tracks grab the listener by the throat and don’t loosen that grip for a second, and they are just as stand out as every track on here (which I guess makes none of them standout by default?).

Aside from the songs here that sound exactly like Dance Gavin Dance songs (I mean that as nothing but a high compliment), there are definitely a handful that were not what I was expecting at all. The opening track and lead single Prisoner is one of those in a weird way, as on paper it’s not very out of the DGD wheelhouse. It does, however, have one of the most traditional Post-Hardcore choruses the band has given us in a while with flavorful and heavy chord choice that stands out to me for an inexplicable reason. It’s a really awesome song that has only grown on me with time, and I loved it the first time I heard it too. The main attraction for eccentric tracks on here is undoubtedly Calentamiento Global, a song that combines the band’s usual sound with Latin Pop music to create… Reggaeton Post-Hardcore??? Tilian’s vocals here are entirely in spanish, but Jon Mess is still the same old Jon Mess and the guitar parts are as vibrantly clever and catchy as always. It’s arguably the weirdest song they’ve ever put out, yet it fits like a glove after a couple listens and it’s probably the one that I’ve come back to the most. Parallels also has some production techniques that I absolutely love, making it one of the bounciest and grooviest tracks I’ve ever heard from the band. The guitar tone on this thing has an infectious swagger about it that makes me stomp my foot and bang my head involuntarily. Literally as I’m typing this sentence my hand has left my keyboard multiple times just to tap along. Last but not least in the category of songs I wasn’t expecting, Nothing Shameful with Andrew Wells is the closest we’ve gotten to a song off of Happiness since Happiness itself. As that album is usually my favorite of the band’s albums (it’s so hard for me to pick that I’ll always remain indecisive) this was a very pleasant surprise for me. It’s definitely one that sonically still sounds like a track from the Tilian era, but the songwriting style lends itself to the emotional and breezy sounds we got from the second Kurt Travis album. The lyrics are more on the serious side as well and don’t leave as much room for the typical DGD lyrical nonsense, making this one really stand out to me.

The only parts of this album that I’m not completely head over heels for would be the Bilmuri featuring closer Into the Sunset and one particular moment on Parody Catharsis, a track that would otherwise be one of my favorites. The latter of those two contains some of the most catchy guitar parts on the entire album, which is very high praise believe me, but it’s held back a bit by the weird rapping from Will Swan (i assume). I don’t want to diss Will as he’s at the very least tied for my favorite guitarist of all time, but with two much more talented vocalists at the helm of the band his inclusion feels a little off on here. I feel like the song could have just skipped over that weird little rap and gone right into the pre-chorus and nobody would have noticed it was missing. The rest of the song is absolutely fantastic though, and Will’s performance on the six string more than makes up for that flaw. Into the Sunset is the only full song that I was iffy on, even though it isn’t necessarily bad. It’s just kind of a weird way to close out the album as it combines sunny and emotional Indie Rock sounds with Hip-Hop sub bass and Jon’s brutal vocals in a weird way. Bilmuri’s feature is also undoubtedly the worst part of the entire record, as his verse is one of the last things you hear on the album and it just isn’t very good. He has a $uicideboy$-esque flow on the track that just feels even more out of place than Tilian’s Spanish lyrics should have earlier on in the record. It’s a listenable song with some cool ideas here and there, but it’s mostly a smorgasbord of different styles and melodies that don’t work particularly well together. DGD manages to take so many different styles, genres and ideas and mesh them together so well because they understand the elements of cohesion and unity.This track tosses that concept to the wayside in places though, making it the weakest on the album.

One sore spot out of 13 near perfect tracks is not even close to bad though, and trust me those other 12 tracks are some of the most fun I think you can have with a musical release so far this year. This is an unbelievably fun, upbeat and catchy album packed with must-hear tunes for any DGD fan. I haven’t heard a single negative opinion about this thing from anybody that already enjoys the band’s style, and that overwhelmingly positive fan reception is very well deserved. As Finn McKenty described it in his recent video about the band, it’s like every listener either has the gene that makes them love this band or doesn’t. If you have that gene, and I think half of my DNA is made up of it, then you are going to be head over heels for this gem. There is so much awesome material here that just forces a smile onto my face everytime I listen. Getting an album as great as this from DGD makes me feel like I’m opening up a mound of Christmas presents under the tree back when I was a little kid. I can’t recommend this thing enough. Afterburner is a consistently amazing and eclectic record from Dance Gavin Dance that takes their addictive signature sound and transforms it in meaningful and mind-blowing ways. They continue to prove they are one of the most talented and consistent bands in music right now on here, and I just can't get enough. - 9.2/10 (Best Songs - Lyrics Lie, Calentamiento Global, Born to Fail - I seriously can’t choose just three, please listen to the entire thing you won’t regret it I promise don't listen to Fantano okay thanks bye) (I still love Fantano though he’s just objectively wrong about DGD)