Dance Gavin Dance - Pantheon (September 12, 2025) • Page 11

Acceptance speech bottom is the most insane thing I’ve ever seen in my life

 

royal ocean?

 

robot with human hair resurrection is the first song since dbm 2 to sound anything like that album

 

it’s crazy how much I despise this band as people (even outside of how they handled tilian they just seem like douche bags to me) and how much I hate their fan base and whole general “thing” yet am completely and utterly obsessed with the actual music. I love almost everything they’ve done to some extent, at least select songs even from the ones I like the least.

happiness
acceptance speech
dbm
dbm 2
instant gratification
mothership
self titled
pantheon
jackpot juicer
royal ocean
artificial selection
afterburner

top 2 are interchangeable. I think every tilian album besides acceptance speech has some bloat with jackpot, arse and afterburner having insane amounts of filler on them.

 

downtown battle mountain
whatever i say is royal ocean
self-titled
happiness

i don't know the rest.

 

Kurt will always be my favorite DGD vocalist because I was introduced to the band at Warped 09

 

All the Tillian albums sound the same to me and I find his voice really annoying. Pantheon at least feels like them trying some different shit and even though a lot of it misses, there's some cool stuff.

 

I feel very similarly to @beatingheartsbaby in that I love everything they've released but feel every album has its share of filler.

Jackpot Juicer
Happiness
DBM
Artificial Selection / Mothership tied
Deathstar
Pantheon (may be higher with more time)
Instant Gratification
Acceptance Speech
Afterburner
DBM2
WISIRO

JJ is at No.1 despite it having imo their worst ever song (Two Secret Weapons) because I think Holy Ghost Spirit, Synergy, Die Another Day, One Mans Cringe, Long Nights in Jail, Pray to God for your Mother and Have a Great Life are all elite-level songs to me.

 

I think, unfortunately, space cow might be worse than two secret weapons

 

I say this having not read the lyrics yet: that one is at least more musically interesting. Two Secret Weapons is kind of boring sonically with worse lyrics to boot.

 

Can’t stand the sound of it lol

 

I think more than anything I'm now reluctantly interested to see where they go from here, there's obviously still influence from the Tilian era on this (Peak of Superstition is very glaring about it) cos they started writing this thing in 2022. the weirder songs on here give me hope that the next thing they write could really shake off that ghost forever

 

lol space cow really is love it or hate it, I love it

I also hope they shake off tilian influence cause I was really tired of the songs they were writing for a while. there are still a lot of layered vocals and standard song structures but I'm having more fun with it. artificial selection and IG I did like back when they came out but all of those tilian albums are a lot harder to listen to these days for me

 

I finally checked this out and only kept 2 songs in my library (Animal Surgery & A Shoulder to Cry On)

Better luck next time

 

Ok I'm in to this. Listened once in the car and once on my run this evening. Really dig the heaviness they bring out in the later half. Yikes! is great.

Is that Andrew screaming in some of this when it adds in other people doing screaming vocals?

 

Yep! Andrew does a pretty decent amount of screaming on here. Will does some as well.

 

Andrew’s vocals are great. Hopefully they keep him for #12

 

I fucking love robot with human hair resurrection so much

 

They need to never let will on the mic again. I’ve been saying this since dbm 2

 

There's lots cool and new going on in Rebirth. I want to give in and love it, but 3:20-3:45 is prob a dealbreaker.

That and Shoulder, which is actually really good, are the only two doing much for me. The universal praise for Animal Surgery makes me feel like I just need to accept I'm on a different planet from their remaining fanbase now. That chorus sounds like paint by numbers mid-late Tilian era but with a decidedly cringier delivery.

 

Really not a fan of Andrew Wells vocals. I mean I'm sure they'll eventually grow on me as the rest of the stuff is fine. I just think Tillian's pitch was perfect for the band. But I also hated Tillian when he originally took over and eventually grew to like him....so I'm sure I'll come around to Andrew. I think I prefer him when he's screaming tbh, but I also really like when Andrew, Jon and Will are all screaming. Probably why The Stickler is a standout track. Other favorite songs are Yikes and Descend to Chaos. Animal Surgery isn't bad either but I do think the later half of the record is strong imo.

 

I think people need to get used to Andrew quick, as they have already written 16 new songs with him for another album that they start recording next month haha - that is quoted from him directly during his/Will/Matts acoustic performance a couple days ago

 

I'm still not really sure why, but none of the singles grabbed me or made me especially excited for this, but it works soooooo much better as a whole. I liked what Tilian brought to the band a lot (don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's gone) so I'm not ready to say it's better or worse than any of his output - though I think I'll end up liking it more front to back that JJ, but I'm not sure it reaches the same highs.

This album feels the most like Jonny led DGD since DBMII, and I'm sure it's mainly Andrew, but there's some DMB-esque leads happening here too. I love all the lyrical callbacks to old songs, as well as the vocal variation between everyone. I like that I currently don't 100% who's singing, screaming, rapping (I assume that's all Will) and I feel like that is keeping it pretty fresh.

Also out of morbid curiosity I checked out Tilian's new band, Dead Air Divine, which is with a dude who used to be in Born of Osiris I think? Anyway it's not good. The angular djenty riffs do not work well at all with his voice IMO.

 

My opinion has stayed largely the same since the leak, I like this more than anything they've done ArSe and forward. I could see it topping IG or AS too for Tilian albums. Mothership, for better or worse, will probably always be my favorite DGD album.

Oh, and yeah, Dead Air Divine is some of the worst shit I've ever heard. Sounds like Tilian trying to hop on every trend in the genre at once and it's just a mess. You'd think his vocals would be at least on par with past stuff, but at least to me it sounded like he did not actually write lyrics or melodies before hitting record in the vocal booth. lol

 

All of Tilian's output away from DGD and ToM's Dreamhouse is just not for me. He might find something catchy every once in a while on a solo song, but I have to guess that a lot of what I liked during his era in those bands is in large part due to other people involved in the projects.