While searching for some new music on iTunes, I ran across a band I have not heard since 2005. The band, Dark New Day, is back. After a seven year hiatus, Dark New Day has released “New Tradition.”

This is good news to followers of Dark New Day, but the band should have stuck with their “old tradition” of creating better music. With little expectations and fans not sure what to expect, the new album fell short of what 2005 release had accomplished. Don’t get me wrong, I do like a new sound. I was not impressed by the performance of most of the tracks.

The band, headed by lead singer Brett Hestla, and includes the talents of Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery, Clint’s brother Corey, and rounded out by Will Hunt on drums and Troy McLawhorn on lead guitar. Their 2005 release, “Twelve Year Silence” had moderate success, reaching in the Billboard top 200. Right now, I would take the 2005 release over this new sound. With that said, a few glimmers of good appear in a few of the tracks. “New Tradition” begins with banging sounds of bass, guitar riffs and drums. The song, “Fist from the Sky,” sounds good up until the vocals begin. The next track, “Come Alive” is the most similar sounding to the Dark New Day of old. The first single released from this album is “New Tradition”, and is one of the strongest of the album. The sounds of the guitar and vocals match up very effectively. I most enjoyed the breakdown of the song. The ending made my blood boil. Following this track, the songs tail off into a more whiny and soft approach. The band does try their best to disguise it with their heavy sounding guitars and drums, but it is a transparent attempt. A few songs that do salvage my iTunes purchase of this album were the tracks “Caught in the Light,” “Sunday,” and “Burns Your Eyes.” “Caught in the Light” really gets my attention within the lyrics. “Sunday”, though it is a ballad sounding track, does really well holding the sounds and vocals together in harmony. The track “Burns Your Eyes” concludes the album on a positive note, by putting a stamp down of edgy and grasping sounds.

Although this album just received harsh criticism from me, I do feel Dark New Day can learn from this album and assuming the band can stay intact, may get back to their original roots in creating music their next go at it. “New Tradition” falls far short for my listening pleasure and my hope is that the new Shinedown album, set to release soon isn’t as disappointing as this one has been.