Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing-Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious

September 29, 2009

Reviewer: Matt

“We cry out for direction, but only those truly lost can be found.”
-lyric from “A Tap Dancer’s Dilemma”

I know there’s appeal for this kind of music, but beyond the novelty factor it is largely lost to me.  Usually tagged with the misnomer “avant-garde metal,” Diablo Swing Orchestra embrace a technique used by the most basic metal fusion projects.  For example, like Korpiklaani in the folk metal arena, they take a non-metal genre (“x”) and replace/augment the rhythmic backbone with “metal”-sounding heavy guitars, and the result is dubiously proclaimed “x-metal” by the metal press, and we have another subgenres tangentially related to metal in sound and predominantly disconnected from metal in spirit.

Instead of interpreting only one non-metal genre, however, Diablo Swing Orchestra blend swing, classical, opera, traditional Roma music, mariachi, Morricone scores, and fifty other genres into a veritable free association orgy.  They are extremely talented musicians, and their mastery of such disparate genres is complete and on full display, but the songwriting ultimately seems hodgepodge for its own sake, lacking any identifiable purpose other than to be weird.

Their 2006 debut The Butcher’s Ballroom wasn’t so scatterbrained.  It was an apt mix of swing and classical non-metal components with less accomplished vaguely metal riffs, coming across as a weird fusion between Once-era Nightwish, Rasputina, and the Stray Cats.  The passages where they downplayed the fairly rudimentary metal in favor of the swing elements were by far the most immediate and enjoyable. 
Conversely, Sing-Along Songs… hops to a new genre each song - the swinger “A Tap Dancer’s Dilemna”, the almost Arcturus-sounding “New World Widows,” the humpaa track “Vodka Inferno”, the Keller Williams knockoff “Memoirs of a Roadkill”, the surf rock passages in “Ricerca Dell'anima” culled directly from Tarantino soundtracks) - and concurrently downplaying the non-metal elements in favor of a stepped up metal sound.  There’s a few really cool metal riffs scattered throughout (“Lucy Fears the Morning Star” contains my favorite), but the album entirely lacks cohesion.  The disparate elements occasionally work well within the context of a single song, but when viewed as an album the ideas simply don’t connect.  And topped off with painfully ironic song titles self referential lyrics, Sing-Along Songs… is just too impressed with itself to take seriously.  The Butcher’s Ballroom was a far more focused and respectable effort, and I would have preferred Diablo Swing Orchestra sharpen the metal elements within that fairly clearly defined sound rather than take the kitchen sink approach of Sing-Along Songs… Diablo Swing Orchestra is truly lost, and their cry out for direction went unheard.

If you really enjoy ADHD-fueled tunes, this should be your next purchase.  Diablo Swing Orchestra is clearly a talented band comfortable with being silly, so it’s enjoyable if you entirely divorce yourself from your need for seriousness while listening to it.  For newcomers to this fairly obscure band, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the aforementioned debut before venturing into these unnavigable waters.

Release Date: September 22, 2009
Label: Ascendance Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  A Tap Dancer's Dilemma
2.  A Rancid Romance
3.  Lucy Fears the Morning Star
4.  Bedlam Sticks
5.  New World Widows
6.  Siberian Love Affairs
7.  Vodka Inferno
8.  Memoirs of a Roadkill
9.  Ricerca Dell'anima
10.  Stratosphere Serenade

Total playing time:  38:14

*By clicking "Submit" you agree to the following Terms of Use. You agree not to post any material that is obscene, slanderous, or threatening, or that may violate any law of your country of origin or the United States or of international law. Should you wish to restrict viewing of your email address by third parties, you must select "Hide My Email." You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Metal Psalter from any claims, actions, suits, damages, or other costs arising out of any breach of these Terms of Use.

*Comments: