A Review of ``Dark Matter'' by DANCE WITH THE DEAD

Under review is another album of music I've liked, available for listening and purchase on Bandcamp:
https://dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com/album/dark-matter

This isn't my favourite album from this band, but half of it comprises several of my favourite songs
and its focus on vocal tracks is also pleasant.  This is a good but not representative introduction.
I only noticed while writing this review that each and every track features a guest musician or two.

The album entries follow ordered by my preference, their names, their durations, and album ordering:

                    Neon Cross (feat. Brandon Saller) 03:46 2
= I Want Blood (feat. Shaun Phillips & Anton Kabanen) 04:12 4
>                 Cold as Hell (feat. Shaun Phillips) 04:01 1
>                      Whispers End (feat. Kat Von D) 04:15 5
=                           Wolf Pack (feat. Gunship) 04:09 3
>                           Rust (feat. Cole Rolland) 04:42 6

The first track begins with its simple tune from an instrument giving the song an appropriately cold
feeling, before bringing in the instruments it uses for the remainder of the song.  The song appears
to concern itself with the passage of time, the spectre of death, and the cold of a grave.  The song
briefly uses a different beat lacking lyrics in its final third.  This song nicely begins the album.

The second track starts out fast and strong, staying that way for its entire run, sans some segments
with lyrics and without the guitar.  This is the single best Christian rock song I've ever heard, if
it could be called one; it concerns itself with mortality and inevitable death that should sadden no
one.  The chorus calls upon the listener, presumably the singer's daughter, to bury the singer under
a neon cross, and keeps its at that.  Other messages include forgiving those whom one hated, and the
fact that none of us will ``make it out alive''.  As most Christian rock music devolves into generic
messages, I don't believe the relative dearth of specific religious imagery detracts from this song.

The third track is slower than every other track in the album except the fifth, and less consistent.
It builds up similarly to the first, but over a twice or thrice as much time, before starting up its
tune.  I can't tell about what this song is intended to be, since lycanthropy seems to be too simple
of an answer.  Nonetheless, its title; lyrics containing ``transform'', ``victims'', and ``blackened
skies''; and its focus on blood have me unable to make any other sense of the story within the song.
The title acting as part of the chorus is largely absent in this song, also unlike the other tracks.

The fourth track, and a strong contender for my favourite, keeps its tune more consistently than the
second, right until the end where it peters out, much like several of the others do.  The song deals
with the grief of losing a loved one, a woman, and afterwards turning to violence.  It's hard for me
to describe exactly what I like about this song, and I feel myself unable to praise it properly; its
lyrics and tune flow so smoothly as the song progresses, with its message so simple and clear.  This
song ends with piano and perhaps drums as it dies out, maybe the only album in the song using piano.

The fifth track starts slowly, like the fourth, and largely stays that way.  Its lyrics begin like a
prayer before sleep.  This track holds no consistent tune throughout as most of the others do, and I
struggle to find meaning in its lyrics much as I did with the third; there's a consistent story, but
be it about a madwoman, betrayal, escaping in fear, or something else eludes me.  Those lyrics which
stay with me most easily are ``infernally yours'', and seem rather clever.  This song also lacks its
title in its chorus, also like the fourth.  This song is easily the most unusual of the whole album.

The sixth and final track starts out strong and stays that way a few seconds into its run, similarly
to the fourth.  This is the only track in the album which lacks lyrics, and this also makes the song
hard to describe like the others.  It brings to my mind a day drive on a long road through a desert.
The latter half of the song takes two small detours, but soon enough returns to normal when it ends.

I enjoy driving to this album, though I listen to only my favourite half, and almost entirely ignore
the other three songs; this is more to do with the quality of my favourites than that of the others,
however.  I can't confidently state which album from this band I'll review next, as each holds songs
worth hearing, but this album compresses itself to have perhaps the highest ratio of good to normal.
.