Like the bands mentioned above, Daysend don't restrict themselves to constantly heavy music. There is a lot of ambience and (most importantly) melody all through this album. Don't get me wrong, they certainly pack a decent punch in the balls and chunk department, but there is that other side to the music that keeps it from becoming stale.

The album-opening "Born Is The Enemy" is a good representation of the whole album. It's not massively heavy, but it does get to be in parts, and it's full of melodic vocal lines that will get stuck in your head days after you've listened to them. We're shown just how heavy Daysend can be in the second track, "Ignorance Of Bliss", which showcases guitarist Aaron Bilbija's talent for solos. I saw Daysend live opening for Alchemist once and the thing that immediately struck me about them was how great the guitar work was. There was a lot of death-metal influenced riffage, but the solos were more leaning towards the Steve Morse, John Petrucci side of things. That diversity is a great thing to have, and puts the whole band in good stead immediately.

The only bad thing about the album for me is some of the vocals. Simon Calabrese's voice itself isn't a problem, in fact he has a very powerful scream that can be very emotional. My problem is that by the end of the album it becomes a little stale and tiresome, and although we're treated to some cleaner vocals in isolated sections, it's not nearly enough to provide a contrast to the screams. The vocals in "Prism Of You" are my personal favourite, because the cleaner vocals are used primarily with some screaming used to accent the chorus. This makes for a perfect mix which doesn't start to hurt your ears like some other sections.

Overall, Severance is a very strong, consistent album. The fact that these guys are Australian should convince you to pick this album up, if my review hasn't.

Severance is also being released worldwide through Metal Blade Records.