A little over two weeks ago, on September 12th, Dance Gavin Dance released a new album called Pantheon. This is the first studio album after three years to be released since the release of Jackpot Juicer in 2022 which was accompanied by the departure of their lead singer Tillian Pearson. You’re probably wondering “If Tillian left after Jackpot Juicer, then who was the lead for Pantheon?”, and the answer is Andrew Wells, who has been part of the band since 2021 and has stepped up from the role of guitarist to lead singer.
What is Pantheon about?
According to an interview posted by Ashley Oken on newnoisemagazine.com, the band expresses anxiety, existential dread, and a mix of anger and frustration over the intense political climate, along with elements of chaos throughout the album due to an extreme lineup change (considering Tillian being the lead for about 12 years before leaving) and the tragic loss of their bassist Tim Feerick. Ashley, in her interview with Will Swan (lead guitarist), stated, “Swan points out that the band traverses “dark feelings” and their feelings on the “chaos” of the world and a “reaction to what is being said and felt,” with the album acting as an exploration of “new territory that we haven’t covered in a long time.””
She has also stated from her talk with Matt Mingus (drummer) that for him, the album is “more than just another record – it is a redefinition of a band that has had to recalibrate in the face of change and grief and a testament to perseverance.”
My First Impressions Of The Album (And When I First Discovered DGD)
I didn’t discover the band until around 2020-2021 when I found the song “Head Hunter” – a single released in 2019 – on a social media reel, and I was in awe with the first listen. My interest in the band didn’t grow until around my freshman year of high school (2023) when I came across another track of theirs titled “We Own the Night”, which is one of their most popular songs and the first track in their album “Instant Gratification”. Unfortunately, this was also when I found out that the singer for these tracks, Tillian, left. I would talk about the reasons and the lore as to why he left, but the things he did to get ‘cancelled’ were quite bad in my opinion. It truly is unfortunate since he consistently sung in a higher than usual vocal range, which is very impressive and rare, and I believe his vocals brought a lot to the table. Easy to say though, I’m not complaining at all about Andrew Wells being the new lead singer, matter of fact I personally think he’s killing it and doing a wonderful job, and to realize that Pantheon is technically considered his debut with DGD as lead singer really blows my mind! I also believe, along with other fans of the band that I’ve seen on the media, that his voice clashes insanely well with Jon Mess, the beloved scream vocalist of the band. Overall, this is a new chapter for the band, and I was really excited to hear that they were releasing a new album.
Months before the full album was released, five tracks from Pantheon were pre-released. I’ve only listened to four of them since the fifth one was just released the day before the full album was, but that’s okay because I’ll still hear it once I do a listen and review of each track. The four that I did listen to in order of release was “Midnight at McGuffy’s” (released May 8, which was also my birthday, awesome!), “All the Way Down” (released May 22), “Trap Door” (released July 9), and “Space Cow Initiation Ritual” (released August 13).
The Review
Just a reminder, the following are my personal opinions of each song, so please do not send any hate if you have a different opinion. Also, if you wish to listen to Pantheon or any other album by the band, they are available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music, TIDAL, and SoundCloud.
Animal Surgery – The intro to the song is a good build-up not just into the song, but the whole album. Despite being the second longest song in the album standing at 5:10, it’s very fast-paced and gives a boost of energy to introduce the “new chapter” for the band as mentioned before.
Midnight at McGuffy’s – As shown in the music video and the name of the track itself, the song takes place in a bar called ‘McGuffy’s’, accompanied with the vibe of overwhelming party scenes. While this does feel like a very upbeat track, the element of anxiety, as talked about in Ashley Oken’s interview earlier, is present in the context of the song and the music video. I overall feel very energized by this track as it most literally makes me think of dancing, and not going to lie, I kind of hope this song plays at prom.
The Robot with Human Hair: Rebirth – Just by looking at the lyrics alone, this song brings out the “dark feelings” that Swan mentioned in Oken’s interview. I picture this song being about the band members falling into a dark place mentally after the loss of Tim and the incidents that led to Tillian’s departure. Swan’s choice of guitar notes really emphasize the dark emotions being expressed in the song.
The Conqueror Worm – Transitioning out of the previous track, this song has a more positive vibe to suit the upbeat musical themes. It’s a bit harder to depict what this song is about, but like other songs from previous albums before, I think it might be about a toxic relationship where one person has control of the other and the other person has had enough.
Trap Door – Listening to this track again, but this time in order with the rest of the tracks, is helping me connect some dots. I think that each song might be leading off each other like a story and considering how this song is about perseverance and achieving triumph over your enemies, this song might be about the other person in that toxic relationship finally moving on and not letting that person control them anymore. Overall, this might be one of my favorites in the album so far, but that could just be an unconscious bias since I listened to it when it was pre-released.
Strawberry’s Daughters – According to a few different subreddits, this song adds to the ‘strawberry’ saga. I’ve only listened to one other song of the saga, “Death of a Strawberry”, so I’m unsure where this falls in the saga. As much as I loved “Death of a Strawberry”, I didn’t care too much for this track, furthermore I don’t really have too much else to say about this track either. It was also the second shortest song standing at 3:35, only four seconds longer than “The Peak of Superstition”.
Space Cow Initiation Ritual (ft. George Clinton) – Looking at the title, my brain suddenly acknowledged that most of DGD’s visual themes include galactic elements, with examples like their album “Mothership”, the background characters in the McGuffy’s music video, and, of course, space cows. I think this song is about the imploding stress currently being put on the working class. This song isn’t one of my top three favorites, but definitely is worth fourth or fifth place for its uniqueness to the rest of the album and the funky vibes to it.
All the Way Down – This song might just be my number one favorite in the entire album. I the fast pulsating drums and the guitar riffs clash really well to get that rush along with the constant overlapping of Jon’s and Andrew’s vocals. I think this song captures the theme of the intense and dangerous situations that are arising from the political chaos, which was again mentioned in Oken’s interview to be one of the appearing themes in Pantheon. I also love how the beat stays consistent even with all the pace changes with the drums.
A Shoulder to Cry On – This track, again, doubles down on the theme of political chaos, this time talking about how we aren’t blind to the things that are really going on and the darkness of those things that are happening. I enjoy how at about more than halfway through the song, they transition into themes of hope that we can make it through the upcoming destruction.
The Peak of Superstition – Immediately, the song has a similar beat and vibe as “Midnight at McGuffy’s” with a low-key guitar track to dance to and taking place at night, as seen in the lyrics. I don’t really have anything else to say about this track because I have most of the same thoughts on it as I did for McGuffy’s, but if I did have to say something, it would be that both this song and McGuffy’s collide really well to give that unusual yet energetic feeling if you were to go to a bar at night to think about things while dancing and potentially having a swig or two of an alcoholic beverage.
The Stickler – The opening guitar chords immediately gave me a rush feeling along with a sense of what could be despair. This song gives off the impression of being mentally lost and that you’re slowly losing control with all the negativity of things adding up and weighing you down. Overall, I deeply enjoy how this song expresses the emotion of anger and frustration as mentioned in the interview.
Yikes! – I don’t exactly know what I think of this song specifically, and that could be because I was zoning out while listening in. In other words, the melody of this song pulled me in. This track was quite solid!
Descend to Chaos – Compared to the other tracks in Pantheon containing the theme of political chaos, this one captured the direct issues the best, which is the overuse of power causing destruction and madness. The use of words like “martyr”, “blood”, philosophy”, and several other words forming sentences aid in that capture. I believe closing the track out with this song was the right call to make.
Final Thoughts
The whole album Pantheon really defines and captures that ‘new chapter’ of Dance Gavin Dance, with new experimental melodies, a new lead singer, and an overall new chapter for all the band members with the things they’ve been going through. I think the album lives up to its name, with the element of overcoming fear as heard in “All the Way Down” as well as growing as a person and not letting others take control of you. Personally, hearing the new melodies from Andrews voice and the experimental guitar riffs by Swan was really exciting for me and had me really tapped into each track. I would highly recommend this album to others with an interest in post-hardcore, screamo, progressive rock, and other similar genres. Amazing job with the album DGD, and congratulations to Andrew Wells on the debut as lead singer!
Sources:
https://newnoisemagazine.com/interviews/interview-dance-gavin-dance-talk-pantheon/
https://open.spotify.com/album/4pOEtwmUG4PBP47SbdGzC5
