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Dying Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

  • Summary: The debut full-length release for the British rock quartet was produced by Dominic Mitchison.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. 90
    Closer ‘Sea Of Trees’ is as impressive, its restrained riff suddenly smothered by an almighty dirge. It’s a fitting climax to a record that unsettles from start to finish.
  2. 85
    It's a noisy little beast that will leave you feeling somewhat battered, disorientated, but actually, the stink of the corpse of rock has never sounded so good. Just have some paracetamol to hand.
  3. Uncut
    Feb 11, 2015
    80
    Dying is at once a queasy and exhilarating listen, made more unnerving still by the lyrical fragments about addiction, insomnia and depression that emerge from their clamour. [Mar 2015, p.
  4. 80
    Rather than having rushed to capture and over-stretch the first flushes of studio exploration with a premature first album, the much-awaited Dying logically extends upon the Spectres’ story so far whilst standing-up as a more mature and ambitious statement in its own right.
  5. Mar 6, 2015
    80
    The group are at their best when melding reverb-soaked, crunchy multiple guitar layers, playing with dynamics atop a kind of jungle-drum thump.
  6. Feb 11, 2015
    75
    Dying may appear to have a ominous bleakness about it on the surface, but it soon becomes clear that this is an urgent, cathartic and downright exciting listen.
  7. Q Magazine
    Feb 11, 2015
    60
    Not for the faint-hearted then, but there's definitely something to enjoy in its sheer bloody-mindlessness. [Mar 2015, p.117]

See all 11 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Mar 2, 2015
    7
    Dying is a well-informed debut album that crafts an atmosphere and aesthetic that largely borrow from the ‘90s—whether it’s noise-pop,Dying is a well-informed debut album that crafts an atmosphere and aesthetic that largely borrow from the ‘90s—whether it’s noise-pop, post-punk, or shoegaze, it’s a record seemingly disinterested in defining itself by one specific signature sound. The guitar rhythms simultaneously hum and screech dark, brooding melodies, while frontman Joe Hatt’s vocals are virtually monotone throughout, making your eardrums are about as disoriented as Dying’s composition and lyrical themes. But while it’s certainly a bit of a ubiquitous statement since the recent return of the shoegazing genre, the Spectres offer an overall enjoyable listen that, at its best, never sounds too inauthentic to lose yourself in. Expand