Band:	Diablo Swing Orchestra
Album:	Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious
Style:	Avantgarde metal, Symphonic metal
Release date:	September 21, 2009
A review by:	Jeff

Disc I [CD]
01. A Tapdancer's Dilemma
02. A Rancid Romance
03. Lucy Fears The Morning Star
04. Bedlam Sticks
05. New World Widows
06. Siberian Love Affairs
07. Vodka Inferno
08. Memoirs Of A Roadkill
09. Ricerca Dell'Anima
10. Stratosphere Serenade

Disc II [DVD]
+ Based On A True Story
+ Balrog Boogie 8 Bit Version

2006 was the year of THE discovery, and Metal Storm was probably the first magazine to review Diablo Swing Orchestra and predict a wonderful future success to the band. I remember the day when I first listened to the band and said "what the hell is that?", for sure The Butcher's Ballroom was a great surprise and one of the most unexpected album of the last 10 years? I was awaiting a lot their new release, Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious, with a little fear to be honest, the level of the previous release being extremely high but now that I listened this release a lot of time, I can tell you that Diablo Swing Orchestra didn't miss the goal one more time!

Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious is one more time original, avantgardist and surprising. If the band still follows the recipe of their previous album and mix together, some Metal with Swing and symphonic music this is obvious that they're also more mature. The songs are all deep and catchy yes but not so easy on a side. It swings it's dancing and stays in your head for a long time but I don't know why, I cannot say that this album smell commercial music. I just think that Diablo Swing Orchestra is in the category of the bands who just understand how music works. One more time their songs flirt with conventional metal genres (like symphonic metal) but never cross the line and in the end remains pure and not copycats or trendy songs. With this new album, Diablo Swing Orchestra proves that they have invented a genre, something unconventional and that their first album was not something lucky. Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious follows the step of The Butcher's Ballroom with more maturity and deepness in the composition. This is not simple at all and even a bit different than on the previous album with more craziness but some songs are maybe less easy of access too?

One other excellent point of the release comes from its production. One more time the album is released in a really nice digipack but the strongest point of Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious is its recording. This is simply perfect, we can hear all the instruments, especially the trumpets etc, same with the voice of Annlouice which is really good but also really well recorded and mixed. This is really professional, at the top level of what we can find with the most famous active metal bands.

I don't know if Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious is better than The Butcher's Ballroom which was a killer, but for sure this is not worst! Maybe that the surprise is not the same now that we know what kind of Metal plays, but still Diablo Swing Orchestra rocks and this new album is not boring, at the opposite it find the way to be unpredictable again? No doubt Diablo Swing Orchestra is a great band, we'll see if the next album will be as good as the two first ones but if they manage to do it, then I can predict that Diablo Swing Orchestra will become the new reference and "must see/have" band in this category.