Dancing With Paris

Dancing With Paris is a reckoning force of heavy breakdowns, and loud infused guitar riffs. The five piece hardcore outfit from Toronto a town that boasts quite and incredible trance and electronica scene. The band is a breath of freshness amongst their competitors and other bands alike. If you are looking for something that will blow your mind as well as take you away, The Drought is the record for you. Initially I was excited to have the chance to get in touch with my roots once again musically, and Dancing With Paris did it for me. - Static180

It’s a good sign when one year without new music from a band feels like several. This shows the artist keeps you craving more. Well when I was introduced to DANCING WITH PARIS back in early 2010 (or late 2009, whenever it was), I immediately fell in love with the band. Their first EP, There’s Something In the Water, was an amazing EP that made the wait for The Drought very difficult. Well, finally, the full length has been unleashed, and it lives up to the anticipation. Right from the start, this record gets you shredding and on the edge of your seat. The familiar feel isn’t even a problem here (not to say that this album sounds just like the EP, because it doesn’t). While this is definitely a DWP album, it shows a gradual progression for the band. There’s more singing here (including some guest female vocals), and both the clean and screamed voices have improved. Instrumentally, those guitars make original fans feel right at home. However, as a complete set, the music of this album is slightly more evolved and tightened than on the EP (which is just what you want). Both releases have shown range in the band, but it’s more forward this time around. The construction of The Drought is impressive, entertaining, intense, energetic, and thoroughly gnarly. Fans will not be disappointed; DANCING WITH PARIS have kicked ass yet again with this one. — by Nathaniel Lay
>Recommended Tracks: “The Peter Principle”, “In the Direction of Sharks”, “Black Sheep”

Bottom Line: The Drought is (dare I say?) a masterpiece in the progressive hardcore genre. Not sparing a single drop of sweat, DANCING WITH PARIS brought their all during this record. At this rate, their next album will be as perfect as they come. - Lexington Music Press

I expected a garage tape, but what I recieved was a well produced experience. It’s almost like they knew exactly what I needed on my iPod, although I’m sure they knew that when they picked up the group. If you’re reading this review (before or after it) go download their EP “There’s Something In The Water” for free and make sure you go ‘like’ them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, they deserve it. All right, even boasting; on to the review:

The record starts off strong with “The Peter Principle”, and you can tell it’s not Dancing With Paris’ first recording as the instruments sound impresive, the lyrics are well played, and it even includes a female vocalist (who reminds me of Deadlock’s ownc Sabine Scherer). Track 2; “The Jumper” is a 55 second harsh bass line taking charge of the experience giving the overall album a well needed grunge feeling. ”Plurals” kicks off with clean vocals that I can only imagine are the lead singer’s (but I don’t honestly don’t know) and they seem a little rough, but with how much emotion is put behind this track from the whole band it makes it almost unnoticable.

Track 4; “In The Directions Of Sharks” is probably my favorite jam off the record featuring a well distorted guitar mixed in the opening onslaught of drums followed by the angriest song from the vocalist so far. I can’t help but be reminded of one my favorite bands Inked In Blood (RIP) when they replace clean vocals for a melodic-esk breakdown flowing with the angry vocals. “Speculation” is a 1:20 interlude which felt uneeded at first (after a song like that; I just wanted more) but after a thrid listen you can tell it was actually well needed to give the album a break. “The Last Man” keeps the keys from the interlude going at the begining leaving a perfect transition into the opening brakdown. This feels like their most emotionally driven song so far, keeping the pace semi toned down but staying everybit as fierce with a weak chant place 3/4s into it. I should make a note here that the vocals do sound a little produced and with this chant you can tell why – poor recording. It’s not the band’s fault, but like I said before it gives the band a great original grundge sound.

“Brazen Bull” picks the pace back up, quickly. Packed with fast riffs, chugs, a bass drop, and the comeback of the clean vocals this is about the point where you really question yourself for not hearing of this band before. “Black Sheep” sounds like it should be “In The Directions Of Sharks, The Sequel” except it features clean singing and (2:40 into it) the band’s overall hardest breakdown. Track 9; “Elephant Parade” starts off with their standard sound, but through the chorus features some of their most creative instruments on the record taking charge. (Note to the band: if you mixed this style guitar with “Directions Of Sharks”, I’d have to kill you for being too awesome)

“There’s No Help For Girls Like You” could be the most pissed off song on the whole album, probably because as the title puts it, it’s geared by a heartbreak featuring the first duet of clean vocals and screams which shocks me that they haven’t done this before. “Single Serving Friend 2? makes me wish I heard the first song to compare, even though this would be my second least favorite song off the record only because it doens’t feel as original enough after the last couple tracks. Other than that, it’s still a great song featuring a sing along towards the end of it which puts the earlier chant to shame. “Lights To Lights” is more or less an outro featuring the female vocals from the first song and some crazy sounding melodic-interlude style instruments giving the whole experice a great wrap-up.

All-in-all: This alum is completed perfectly, it’s original, and it’s worth a listen whether you’re a fan of Post-Hardcore or Melodic Hardcore, or anything really. - YCSM News

It offers a variety of nice pop/rock melodies followed by some heavy hardcore riffs. The drums are the spines of the songs; keeping its simplicity and at times becoming transition fills which can be best heard for example, in the song "Bled Dry." - Pure Grain Audio

There's something about Canada that creates interesting takes on metal and all its wonderful subgenres. We've had Voivod creating space thrash, the evergreen genius that is Devin Townsend who can adapt almost anything to his own inimitable style, and Cryptopsy who managed to take death metal and inject it with a crazed level of technicality and brutality. Now we have Dancing With Paris, a band who take your normally despised basic metalcore template and twist it about a bit to create something rather good.

Opening track 'Bled Dry' cracks off with some great grating groove riffs, almost more deathcore than metalcore, before opening into some catchy clean signing choruses which are more reminiscient of 36 Crazyfists or, eurgh, Fall Out Boy. Thankfully, those sections are kept to a minimum throughout the album, and most of the vocals are of a harsher variety, which suits their hardcore riffing better I feel.

The problem with most metalcore acts, I find, are a lot of them become very samey after a while. You'll find two or three excellent tracks on every album but thats about it. Dancing With Paris don't really suffer this problem on this EP; whether that would remain true of a full release I'm not sure, but their EP flows pretty well, and the heaviness is only really broken by interlude track '(Boardwalk)', which reminds me of Isis or Pelican's calmer moments. The tracks are pretty short; the band don't stretch out their music longer than is necessary, which helps add to the longevity. 'Hardwalk (of Champions)' sounds a lot like 36 Crazyfists gone deathcore, and the opening of 'Orange County' could be from a Meshuggah b-side.

I like these guys; they seem to be able to throw little extra elements into their musicto keep the interest of the listener. People are pretty sure metalcore is stagnating, and I agree. But its no reason to avoid anything tagged with it, and especially not these guys. They can make you mosh, dance, and sing along without feeling guilty. Recommended. - Spirit of Metal

There are plenty of breakdowns in every song for those who love to mosh, and they keep the pace of the EP fairly fast. It never really slows down until “(Boardwalk),”
- Absolute Punk

"The riffs are solid, the hooks are well placed, and the vocals are strong. As I mentioned, they can be a bit pitchy at times, but I think James has a wicked scream that really carries this EP along. So we can answer the question, “do they have what it takes to get the room bouncing?” I think so!" - The New Review