Over the last couple of years Dance Gavin Dance has undergone several line up changes, at one point leaving only Will Swan and Matt Mingus as the last remaining original members. With Downtown Battle Mountain II it's as if no line-up changes ever-happened, with the exception of the absence of guitarist Sean O'Sullivan. With all these recent line up changes DGD's sound has gone through some considerable changes, evolving largely thanks to Kurt Travis and Will Swan's impressive guitar skill. Now with Travis kicked out and Johnny Craig back you would probably assume that they reverted to their sound as of the original Downtown Battle Mountain. While in a sense they have, thanks to the absence of O'Sullivan Will Swan takes on responsibility for all guitars and for the large part maintains the musical developments of the past two albums and really takes the opportunity to shine.
The main topic of discussion of Downtown Battle Mountain II is that of the vocals. Vocals-wise Happiness found a complete shift for the band, with Travis doing clean vocals and Swan taking on the screaming vocals in Jon Mess's absence. They both performed up to par, proving that they both have what it takes to fill the rather big shoes left behind by both Craig and Mess. Now, as discussed earlier, Craig and Mess are back and they're both just as fantastic if not better (largely in Mess's case) as they were in the original Downtown Battle Mountain. Again and again Johnny Craig has proven himself as an amazing vocalist, and Downtown Battle Mountain II is no different. The most notable highlights of his performance are found in the likes of Purple Reign, Blue Dream, and Elder Goose. While he is an amazing vocalist, Craig doesn't exactly prove himself as a lyricist. Paling in comparison to those of Travis, the main content of his lyrics are of girls, sex and drinking. If you are at all familiar with mainstream music you'll know that those are fairly common and cliche topics, and I expect much more out of a band as extraordinary and of as high a caliber as DGD. Then there is Jon Mess. He is one of the more unique screams that I've heard and he further proves himself here with a marked improvement to his screaming. They're both stronger and shriller, taking a more commanding role throughout the album. Mess writes his own lyrics and they're incredibly strange and completely random as always.
In terms of instrumentals Downtown Battle Mountain II strikes me essentially as a continuation Happiness. To an extent hey are reminiscent of those of the original DBM, but they have taken the experience and growth that they've acquired (they mostly being Will Swan and Matt Mingus) from the past two albums with Kurt Travis and applied it well. Thanks to Will Swan assuming duty for both guitar positions, he is allowed to really shine and show off his skill. I can pinpoint no specific songs that really standout, Swan always delivers his technical and funky guitar work and his performance is really strong and consistent throughout. When it comes to drums Matt Mingus performs fantastically, bringing a high level of skill as has come to be the expectation that fits in perfectly with Will Swan's technical guitar-work.
Though initially hesitant at the spurning of Travis and the re-acceptance of Craig, I couldn't be more happy with how Downtown Battle Mountain has turned out. I may even stray as far as to suggest that this has the potential to rank as my all-time favorite DGD album.
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