Division Day
Visitation
Rating: 1.5/5.0
Label: Dangerbird Records
Leaving behind the heard-it-before morose indie rock of their 2006 debut, Beartrap Island, Los Angelenos Division Day have thrown the dice on their new Visitation, gambling on a slightly-new sound. Aided and abetted by erstwhile Beck and Nine Inch Nails bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen in the producer’s seat, Division Day’s latest is an exhausting record whose material seems trapped in doldrums, despite the risks taken by the band. In addition to the self-described “darker” material, Division Day have banked on singer Rohner Segnitz’s voice to be the band’s defining instrument, placing it front and center on each song.
Unfortunately, Segnitz sings 95% of his vocals in a kind of breathless coo, sounding all too much like the kind of emasculated American Apparel T-shirt model that the band’s videos paint him as. This murmur of a vocal style allows for little range, pushing for the perception that the performances all run together; by mid-album, I said to myself, “Wow, this guy’s still at it.” It also begs mention that this coo comes out of the most marble-mouthed lyricist this side of the Gallagher brothers. In “Azalean,” I know I must be hearing it incorrectly, but one line certainly sounds like “Minor udder cuspids until dark.” It could very well be, though, that Segnitz has penned some avant-garde cut-up lyrics in the manner of ’70s Bowie, as his pretentions are worn on-sleeve on Visitation. During one of the times you can interpret him clearly, he sings in “Melachite,” “My skin had changed/ To velvet down/ The color of conifers/ Shimmering,” an alarming “WTF” moment that the record never recovers from.
Segnitz doesn’t get any help from his bandmates, who attempt to riff furiously behind him, though Meldal-Johnsen, as good a pedigree as he may have, chooses instead to condense them into a compressed bed for the vocal stiffness. Though guitarist Ryan Wilson had some tasteful, evocative guitar work on Beartrap Island, he’s a supporting player here, a sideman to Segnitz’s mumbles and synth washes. The resulting product is work by a band that sounds chilly, impersonal and completely incidental. Though things get somewhat interesting with “Surrender,” its frantic rhythm recalling Bowie’s “African Night Flight,” the damage has already been done, the song sounding like the band trying too hard compared with the rest of the record; the The Final Cut sax solo in “Carrier” is the nail in its coffin.
Visitation is a failed gamble, leaving the band seemingly lost between games of rock influence tug-of-war; the title track, with its staccato vocals and precious electronics isn’t angry and suburban enough to be Linkin Park and “Melachite”‘s wall-of-sound is nowhere near hairy enough to be compared even to labelmates Silversun Pickups. “Planchette” is sullen but not as stark as ’80s Peter Gabriel and “Reservoir” is nowhere near aggressive enough to be Nine Inch Nails, Killing Joke or even Stabbing Westward. Visitation’s big score, in the end, is an arousal of the suspicion that, like fellow L.A. rockers the Airborne Toxic Event, Division Day are a carefully re-tooled, focus group-approved brand of CW-friendly Dark Indie Lite that I will be all too glad to forget.
by Chris Middleman
