Old Devil Moon was started as a melodic spinoff of the metallic/hardcore band, Suicide Note back in the summer of 2000. Jay Golday, who had handled the back-up vocals on the previous Suicide Note releases, now stepped up to the front to take on the main vocal duties, and began recruiting friends and family members to fill in the other various positions in the band. Once assembled, Old Devil Moon entered the studio with Kurt Ballou (Cave In, Converge) to record their debut full-length, Midnight and Bright.
Midnight and Bright displays the band's wide variety of influences: from hardcore/screamo interludes of the opening track, to the blues and classic rock riffs that appear in a majority of the songs on the disc. All of the songs have a similar sound. Some may say the melodic guitar lines and busy drumming show that this is a band of mature songwriters, but in reality the music is not too different than most of the other dime-a-dozen melodic rock/emo releases coming out these days. There are some nice hooks scattered throughout the album, and the song structures, while not very diverse, fit the style of music. The biggest problem with the disc is the vocals. When you're a back-up singer in a hardcore band, your vocals don't matter that much, but when you emerge as a lead singer for a melodic rock band, vocals become pretty important. There are times on this album where the singing is off-key, and when your band is trying to sound melodic, such vocals become a distraction.
Overall, Midnight and Bright is a pretty bland release. Musically, the band needs to bring in a little more diversity to make the album easier to listen to straight through. Vocally, the off-key crooning doesn't work well with a melodic rock band and by the end of the album gets rather annoying. If you are a die-hard fan of this genre, you might get some enjoyment out of it, but be warned, there are tons of similar bands out there, many of which have albums that you will get much more enjoyment out of than Midnight and Bright.
2/4
