Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: DYZ
Label: Self-released
Release: 2011
Rating: 5/5
Can a critic claim the right to pass judgment on the life’s work of an artist who put hours, days, months, even years into their creation? Who spent a bigger or smaller pile of money on it and poured their heart and soul into it? Is it even possible to put the musical beauty of a record into words, whether simple ones (or big ones, if we feel like playing pretentious art-school games)? No, I don’t think so. But since my role is to take that right anyway, this sentence is only the start of my take on the studio opus of Domen Justin, better known as DYZ, Welcome to My World.
Domen “DYZ” Justin started his musical journey way back in 1994 in the Jesenice crossover outfit Blackout, then spent the following years honing his craft in various more or less well-known bands. DYZ first got wider attention and recognition through his work in Dusk Delight, and his playing in that band was also captured on the excellent (and sadly only) album Stories. His astonishing guitar work and great feel for songwriting promised a lot and pointed to a rich musical career ahead. That really kicked off between 2001 and 2003 with the founding of the home-grown thrash giants Negligence. In 2007 they released the crown jewel of Slovenian thrash, the debut Options of a Trapped Mind, while in the meantime DYZ was diligently and stubbornly working on his solo material. It first surfaced around 2006 as the demo recording DYZ – The Youth of Today, which never officially came out as an album because DYZ felt it wasn’t produced well enough. Two years later a second attempt followed, DYZ II – Wardance, which for similar reasons didn’t see the light of day either. Because of internal friction, DYZ left Negligence in the fall of 2009 (the second record, Coordinates of Confusion, came out soon after his departure) and threw himself into a new goal: the long-awaited release of his solo debut (long-awaited by those of us whose ears perked up at the demos, anyway).
Welcome to My World is finally here, and with it DYZ throws the doors to his world wide open. And that world is colorful, rich and varied, because it isn’t limited by genre and doesn’t set artificial boundaries for itself. From that angle, we can even welcome DYZ’s departure from Negligence, since it gave birth to music that DYZ could never have squeezed into the Negligence setting. Genre-wise, the album swims in the waters of thrash and heavy metal, groove, crossover, hard rock and southern rock/metal. Despite the varied musical face, the record doesn’t feel scattered but cohesive and seriously exciting, with every little piece having its place and purpose as part of a bigger puzzle. The musical influences are clear and noticeable, but they’re not pushy or too obvious, far from it. They’re simply one big tribute to the bands and music that shaped DYZ’s path up to today. The most obvious is the direct homage to one of the best bands of the nineties, Ugly Kid Joe, with the opening track Attitude Song. Moments of tribute like that totally grab you in places, like the Megadeth-style bass rattle (most of all in Farewell), the southern flavor of Rollin’ Back and Lone Dawn (which here and there faintly recall Pantera and make you want to grab a Confederate flag in one hand and a homemade moonshine in the other), the Carcass classic Rotting in the Free World (the intro of Directive Prime), and masterfully executed, crazy solos that follow one after another and at times recall the virtuosity of Jeff Waters (Annihilator). We naturally expected jaw-dropping solos from DYZ, since we’re used to them from him, but this time the solos truly shine. Yet they’re only pieces of a bigger picture and never steal the spotlight from the heart of the songs themselves, while the fantastically composed solos say more than a thousand empty words. The moving instrumental Hope is just one of many such examples, richly enhanced by the thoughtful use of acoustic guitar. The instrumental parts are all gorgeous and exciting, loaded with emotion and rich in storytelling. So is the devastating ballad Fistful of a Shattered Dream, sung only to piano accompaniment, which is something DYZ probably never could have pulled off within Negligence’s relatively rigid style. Vocally, DYZ may not be Bruce Dickinson, but the vocal lines are worked out extremely effectively, and the vocals are convincing and powerful. Any possible monotony gets broken up in the heavy metal wrecking ball Vivid Dreams, where Sergej Škofljanec, the best heavy metal vocalist in Slovenia, lends DYZ a hand. An already strong debut is only enriched further by the excellent “Sneap-style” production, which is warm, crystal clear and aggressive, with the phenomenal riffs cutting through up front.
After fifteen years, DYZ finally managed to realize his life’s work, and the result can only be a source of pride for him. As a musical biography, the Slovenian release of 2011 says more than a thousand-page book in just over an hour, with fantastic guitar wizardry, an incredible feel for songwriting and a devilish sense of dynamics. All I can wish for now is that DYZ finds the motivation to continue the story and maybe even to bring it to the stage, which this record would undoubtedly deserve.
Lineup
DYZ – guitar, vocals, bass
GUESTS:
Matej Sušnik – bass (9)
Sergej “Sergio” Škofljanec – vocals (12)
Production
Domen “DYZ” Justin
Tracklist
1. Attitude Song
2. Farewell
3. Directive Prime
4. Run the Gauntlet
5. Dreams Revived
6. Ride
7. Rollin’ Back
8. Wind Carrier
9. September
10. Loveless Life
11. Toxic
12. Vivid Dreams
13. Hope
14. Lone Dawn
15. Fistful of a Shattered Dream
16. Lucy
