SikTh – ‘Death Of A Dead Day (10th Anniversary Edition)’ [Special Feature]
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As the band who brought The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild into the UK metal scene’s collective consciousness, Watford tech-metallers SikTh were under no small amount of pressure to beat the legendary sophomore blues and deliver something special with Album Two. Had they stacked it, nobody could have blamed them; even the most talented creatives are capable of losing the War of Art. In the event, however, SikTh won out – and the result was Death Of A Dead Day, a titanic juggernaut of an album rammed full of exquisitely brutal genius.
When I first heard Death Of A Dead Day, I hated it. At the time, I wanted nothing more than to listen to Reuben’s Racecar Is Racecar Backwards, Biffy Clyro’s The Vertigo of Bliss, and (of course) The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out… on endless repeat; anything outside that rough-around-the-edges three-album bubble might as well have not existed. Death Of A Dead Day, however, was something else entirely – hyper-prog complex, yes, but also describable using words that were deeply offensive to my narrow-minded-muso sensibilities. Words like slick, polished, and clean. I hated those words so passionately that it’s a wonder I managed to shower consistently. But needless to say, I eventually changed my tune.
Today, listening to this album is a far less torturous experience than I remember it being before I grew up and opened my ears. From start to finish, I fucking love it. From Bland Street Bloom‘s beatdown to the cymbal work in Way Beyond The Fond Old River; Summer Rain‘s slap bass frenzy; the opening second of Sanguine Seas Of Bigotry; all five minutes and fifteen seconds of Part Of The Friction; the radio-friendly hooks of Where Do We Fall; Another Sinking Ship‘s shower-scene stabs and As The Earth Spins Round‘s very first chord, Death Of A Dead Day is literally littered with masterful parts assembled with virtuosic precision.
As stunning as Death Of A Dead Day is, it’s not just a great album to listen to and get lost within; it’s also a key album listed as a core influence and inspiration by many of today’s most intensely talented young bands, from Periphery to Dorje. The next time you listen to your favourite modern metal band, see if you can’t spot a nod or two in SikTh’s direction. With the Watford six-piece assembling minus Justin Hill, the founding vocalist replaced by Aliases’ Joe Rosser, to work on the long-awaited full-length follow-up to Death Of A Dead Day, there’s never been a better time to get to grips with Sikth’s back catalogue than right now.
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