When I saw one of my guilty pleasures from years ago had published a new album, I thought the time was right to give them another shot. I got to know Dead By April about eight years ago shortly after the release of their first album, when I was into trance infused metalbands and I stumbled upon them through a Youtube suggestion.  Back then, I wasn’t sorry for discovering their music and this album doesn’t change anything about that. In fact, from the very first tunes of opening song Crying Over You, Worlds Collide is one big flashback to these days. Dead By April proves to be a very stable band who knows never to change a winning team: they have a successful concept that responds to a huge audience of boys and girls experimenting with the emo culture. They still play emo(tional) melodic metalcore with a high presence of electronic sounds. Now, I called this band one of my guilty pleasures earlier, because I practically never listen to what I dare to call “emopopcore” (not to be confused with emo popcorn, which is just a roasted black piece of popped corn sobbing in a corner). In my entourage, this is widely frowned upon.

At the same time, nobody can deny that Dead By April has technical talent. Singer/guitarist/writer Pontus Hjelm has a great clean voice and a wide range, with a sound sometimes resembling Owl City and other mainstream bands (another example of Dead By April’s huge accessibility). Harsh vocalist Christoffer Andersson, bassist Marcus Wesslen and drummer Marcus Rosell are in no way staying behind. Regarding drums, strings and especially keyboard, every note is exactly where it is supposed to be and the result is a well considered, tight composition leaving enough space for the music to breathe. It feels like a “light” version in a good way! The tracks don’t consume or overwhelm you, but offer a background setting the mood for romantic contemplation.

All technical abilities aside, it can be so liberating to just turn this music on high volume, think of that special someone and (try to) sing along with Dead By April’s very romanticized lyrics. Here too, little has changed. The lyrical theme is still an overly dramatic love story or rather the general concept of dramatic and unanswered love, leaving the protagonist with a lot of regrets and other intense, unprocessed feelings. This is the exact reason why this new album is, maybe even more than their previous work, so accessible to teenagers who don’t consider themselves metalheads but rather listen to bands like One Direction and the occasional emo(tional) metalcore band to get rid of some frustrations (provided that the musicians are hotties, of course). I would really like to see them make an album about some themes other than love and see if they can still convince their audience! That would be a nice experiment. Musically, the very melodic parts and rhythmic, electronic vibes have a quite uplifting effect. The more extensive use of background choirs definitely contribute to this (e.g. on My Heart is Crushable).

Obviously there are still some metalcore parts, but I have the feeling they are more and more used as a support or connection between the more important melodic and accessible parts (e.g. Warrior and Our Worlds Collide, Perfect The Way You Are). Yet another example of this is the guest appearance on the very soft and mellow ballad-like finale Every Step by Swedish pop singer and multiple Eurovision candidate Tommy Körberg, as a nice extra. This is what distinguishes Dead By April from other similar bands like Asking Alexandria, who keep giving more attention to the harder elements of their music: DBA stands proudly as a self-conscious and self-proclaimed Pop Metal band.

Rounding up: Worlds Collide is a good album by a good band, completely in line with their previous work. Dead By April offers very accessible and romanticized material, but it doesn’t always have to be brutal satanic black metal, does it now?

Release Date: April 7th, 2017
Label: Spinefarm Records
Tracklist:
1. Crying Over You
2. I Can’t Breathe
3. Playing With Fire
4. Warrior
5. Breaking Point
6. My Heart Is Crushable
7. Can You See The Red
8. Our Worlds Collide
9. This Is My Life
10. Perfect The Way You Are
11. Every Step