After the highly successful run of their 2022 album, Dark Sun, Dayseeker have decided to take things back a step, revisiting their music in a different light. 

Replica (Spinefarm Records) strips away their material to the crux of the songs, allowing the lyrics and passion of the musicians to truly shine through. Inspired by their technical malfunction at Blue Ridge Festival, causing the band to do an entirely acoustic set, the band are out to show the true versatility of their sound. 

Whilst it can be said that acoustic albums/alternate albums are almost a cop-out for releasing new music, the band are out to recapture the energy of that one eventful show, which stands the band aside from this brush.

Opening the album is none other than their biggest track “Sleeptalk”, bringing down the speed and intensity, yet somehow retaining the emotional impact the song has. The minimal acoustic guitar strums really bring Rory Rodriguez’ vocals to the center stage of the piece as he sings a highly emotive performance. Light keys add a vital role to the song in the background from the chorus – hard to notice straight away – but bringing the vital melody that the electric guitars brought in the original edition of the track. Despite all that has been stripped away from the original song, the larger emphasis on Rodriguez’ voice really punches that much harder considering the lyrical content.

After a few collaborations live, Dayseeker finally brought over Lucas Woodland of Holding Absence for their acoustic rendition of “Starving To Be Empty”. For two such strong voices in Rock, no one would be surprised to hear them clash, but that could not be further from the truth. 

Woodland’s vocals perfectly enrich Rodriguez’, harmonising in such a way that you’d wish they’d collaborate more in the future. For such an emotive song, it’s incredible how the two vocalists restrain themselves to not oversing their part and to do the song justice rather than to flex their own ranges. 

Straying outside for their final track, the band pulls off a daring feat covering Evanescence’s big hit, “My Immortal”. For any band, this would be quite the challenge being able to match the vocal range of Amy Lee, but the band manage to take it in stride, with Rodriguez hitting every note superbly. Even after decades since the original song’s release, it still does not fail to tug every heart string as it goes. 

For a band like Dayseeker, to not only perform an alternate version of their greatest hits with aplomb, but to elevate them to another level, giving the lyrics that they write their opportunity to really shine is what most bands dream of accomplishing. Now that we’ve seen the range this band can do, there’s no telling what the band has up their sleeves for the inevitable sixth album.

Buy the album here:
https://dayseeker.lnk.to/ReplicaAlbum

8 / 10
CHARLIE HILL