[quick aside: If you're anything like my wife and are a bit squeamish about the idea of animals being harmed - Sleep And Dream may be a track worth approaching with an open mind and some patience.]
Like most of the genre, the sludgy, single guitar opening quickly gives me the urge to roll my eyes into the back of my head - until the initial motive is taken over by up-tempo rock drumming. I feel this really represents a good chunk of A Day Of Nights: an attempted collaboration of indie rock influenced ideas (most apparent by Sleep And Dream's mewithoutyou sort of vocal approach) and the weight of sludge.
Overall, it's a largely enjoyable trip for those not easily offended by the 'heretical' melodic departures from the all-too-sacred Doom methodology. It only seems fitting that a band containing members Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies), Josh Graham (Neurosis), Joel Hamilton (Book of Knots), Tony Maimone (Book of Knots), and Joe Tomino (Peeping Tom) would take the opportunity afforded by their new venture to depart from now stereotypical ideas each of the members' previous efforts may represent. The true power lies in both Julie Christmas's lyrical dis-ambiguity - a largely unpoetic and raw approach to conveying obvious emotional trauma which at times feels somewhat like Dada-ism - as well as aural ideas that are either underrepresented or just absent from the sludge genre as a whole. Bones In The Water is perhaps one of the more familiar sounding and engaging tracks, from a traditional sense, whereas At The Base Of The Giant's Throat may represent the limitations of the experiment, atleast for me.
It's may not be a favorite album for me but all in all a start towards a much needed musical escape from what can largely be considered a worn-out world of post-whatever.
