Daywalkers "1st Dawn" [ALBUM]

 

Daywalkers have been one of Australia's most consistent underground duos since forming under the Rigorous Recordings banner in 2006. 1st Dawn closes out the 3rd Realm Chronicles trilogy — a conceptual arc that started with Chronicles of the 3rd Realm in 2007 and continued through Twilight to Daybreak in 2010 — and it arrives with the full weight of that accumulated creative history behind it. Nineteen tracks is a statement of intent, and the album backs it up: Maggot Mouf on "Exorcism," Metaforix on "Isolation," a.DD and Herbivorz on "Welcome to the Darkside," The Master and Effekt on the extended closer "Last Sunset." The Rigorous network holds firm throughout, each collaborator contributing rather than decorating. Plarks' nickname — the Fumble Tongue — is earned; his syllable density and delivery precision are the kind that demand and reward focused listening. Koziosko matches him throughout. Thematically the album moves through dark, philosophical terrain — "Sympathy for the Devil," "Ancestors," "Exorcism," "The Infinite" — the kind of sequencing that suggests a real conceptual vision rather than a collection of tracks. Australian underground operating at the level it's always been capable of, with a catalog now long enough to prove the point.