Dåkryå Crime Scene
by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer
Conceptual artists more than musicians at heart, this Greek outfit chooses shock value over musical content on their second full-length release. Despite the limited concept and wacky off-the-wall delivery, their bizarre juxtapositions of styles and musical forms manage to create a world of their own which is poignantly flawed and thus utterly believable.
Circus music and fanfare buffoonery find themselves next to pomp-metal arrangements and grotesque vocals on the first track, setting the mood for this dark gothic raree-show from the word go. Sometimes Dåkryå add stereotypical metal riffs and double bass drum to their neon-coloured proceedings – not to engage with metal in any earnestness but to shine a new light on those modern-day all-American clichés, framing them in the context of slapstick comedy and farce. This does the trick, allowing us to see the familiar heavy metal props from a different angle and to think for a moment outside the box about formulas most of us take for granted.
Standout “Phantasmagoria” is the band’s boldest take on cohering and expanding their concept beyond a string of terse ideas, and it works, held together by a hypnotic ostinato riff and spooky string arrangement. Giving away a thing or two about how this outfit would like to be seen, it coyly asks for “weird, elusive, yet cuttingly witty” to be included into any reaction to follow – if not in those exact words, then in an easy-to decipher message.
Where Dåkryå find themselves at the moment, however, is a far cry from the ultimate goal. At times convincing, but more often relying on sheer shock value, this act fails to make the impact it aims at when it turns to continual recycling of their own private fixations and discoveries when sense of drama and pure songwriting rules call for more.
It’s no mean feat to be able to walk the line between deliberate kitsch and subtlety, and Dåkryå slip up as often as they succeed, returning to the self-perpetuating comfort zone every time they run out of ideas. But self-irony, the way they add a dark undercurrent to their overt buffoonery, and the way they deal with vulgarity, show that small ideas can go a long way when fuelled by genuine enthusiasm for the new and contempt for clichés, standards, and obsessions of modern-day record industry.
Band:
Thomais – vocals
George – guitars, vocals
Sophia – keyboards
Angelos – guitars
Christina – vocals
Alex – bass
Stavros – drums
Track Listing:
1. The Charlatans
2. Blind Man’s Bluff
3. Scaremongering
4. The Urban Tribe
5. Camouflage
6. Phantasmagoria
7. Inertia
8. Dramatis Personae
9. A Dreadful Side Scene
Label: Sensory
Online: http://www.myspace.com/dakrya
Hardrock Haven rating: 5/10