 
A very refreshing band to recently come into my
attention via facebook, Art of Dying are signed
to David Draiman and Dan Donegan’s (Disturbed)
record label and release their second full length
CD “Vices and Virtues”.
Listening to the album its clear the band have
made a record that isn’t too experimental
but just full of pure catchy rock tracks. They
are at risk in the current rock market of being
overlooked because of the sheer amount of other
bands that are on the same kind of style and genre
that they are; bands like Hinder, Breaking Benjamin,
Theory of a Deadman and Nickelback just to name
a few. However I highly doubt they will be overlooked
and I do think that they have the potential to
become a very successful rock band.
The main reason I predict this is because they
already have had quite a fair bit of success in
their career and landing a record deal like the
one that they have is going to boost them to new
heights. Anyway enough trivial nonsense lets get
down to the music shall we.
The first track of the album and the very first
single “Die Trying” is an absolute
beauty and a tremendous way to open up an album;
opening up with a heavy song encompassing what
Breaking Benjamin do with that of a lighter band
like Hinder, fairing up in the middle ground with
extremely catchy vocal lines and memorable musician
ship. This style of music is definitely stadium
bound; you can just picture 16000 people singing
along to “Get Thru This” and “Whole
World Crazy”, they really are severely infectious
tunes that I imagine would provoke a lot of crowd
participation.
After a few listens to this album, it’s
just stuck in my head; it’s got in there
and is refusing to leave. Singing to them when
I’m driving or when I’m walking along
with completely different songs on. Especially
“Raining” and “Breathe Again”,
there are elements within these song, the vocals
are catchy, the guitar work is memorable and the
drum lines keep the pace perfectly. The album
never seems to get stale even through to the bonus
tracks that could have easily been put on as standard
tracks as they’re just as good as the standard
tracks.
There are heavier tracks on here though like “Completely”
has a very heavy riff and a gritty edge to it
whilst retaining the usual flowing edge that Art
of Dying seem to be encompassing as their sound
this is also reflected in as previously mentioned
“Die Trying”. However the heavy song
to the more melodic song ratio is very low, maybe
in the future they could up the balance a bit
as this would help their set by living it up a
bit as well as attracting a wider audiance.
I would recommend this album to any rock fan because
it’s got something a bit different about
it but for people who still like songs you can
sing along to it is definitely something you should
invest in. With any luck the band will get out
on the road and get this material and with any
luck head back over to the UK as a main support
act to give them a chance to grow a British fan
base! I’d definitely be there!
5/5
Review by James Webb
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