Creature in the Black Night

Even though its the melodic metalcore outfits sixth set, Creature in the Black Night is a breakthrough of sorts for Dayseeker, landing the California trio on the U.S. main album chart for the first time in their careers. Buoyed by the strength of arena-sized anthems that fall somewhere among contemporaries like Bad Omens, Sleep Token, and Bring Me the Horizon, this album merges a spooky horror theme (check out those titles) with real-life struggles that tap into broken relationships and mortality. Their genre-blurring approach crushes metallic riffs, punishing percussion, and cinematic electronic production into pop-honed songs that feature emotive, soulful singing and skull-rattling screams, heard on highlights such as the towering "Pale Moonlight" and the galloping "Shapeshift." Longtime fans will already be familiar with this exciting mix, but for curious listeners who enjoy such extremes, Creature in the Black Night nails that sweet spot between radio-friendly, hooky singalongs and physically cathartic hard rock. ~ Neil Z. Yeung