Band:	Die Like Gentlemen
Album:	Stories
Style:	Acoustic rock, Progressive rock
Release date:	January 18, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Blind In One Eye
02. The Head Of John The Baptist
03. Empty Kettle
04. After We're Dead
05. Drought
06. Harbinger Of Joy
07. Dead Skin Mask [Slayer cover]
08. Come Closer

Adam Alexander's vocals were thunderous on Die Like Gentlemen's progressive sludge albums, pretty cool to see them just as thunderous on an acoustic one too.

Die Like Gentlemen has been a darling band of mine ever since I first heard Romantic Delusions Of Hell back in the day, and it was a band I had sadly quite forgotten about until I found out about this album's release, so coincidentally it was great for me to hear such a departure from their usual sound as well as an opportunity to relisten to their previous ones. Assuming little to none of our readers are familiar with Die Like Gentlemen, I'm not sure if Stories is really the best place to start, as great of an album as this is, so come back here once you've experienced the ballsy prog sludge of Romantic Delusions Of Hell. Most of the songs on Stories were written specifically for their acoustic live shows, with others being acoustic versions of previous songs.

So now that we have an acoustic album from these lads in our hands, it still has two of the things that made Die Like Gentlemen click with me in the first place: Adam Alexander's imposing vocals, and the intricate and memorable songwriting. With all the fuzz and distortion stripped away, it leaves us more room to properly enjoy those two more clearly. There is thankfully still plenty of instrumentation other than the obvious acoustic guitar, so it doesn't really feel something like a singer/songwriter folk album or anything, so there's plenty of bass and percussion to keep the grooves, and I mean those damn sweet grooves, along with some extras like flutes and cellos to elevate it even further. The guitars themselves transitioned really well into a cleaner sound, without feeling like they miss the power of the distortion.

I feel like I heard plenty of stoner rock and sludge metal bands with this type of vocals and perhaps even some better or more powerful singers than Adam Alexander, but he's always been instantly recognizable and very evocative for me. It's great that the instrumental part of this album is as expansive and lush as it is, but Stories wouldn't be half as good of a record without those vocals, and... well... the stories. It may be high praise to say that his voice here is almost as evocative as the record's Joos van Craesbeeck painting used as a cover art.

Oh and there's also a Slayer cover in there.