Scuttling out of the darkness comes The Study of Man… and the Developed Shadow, the debut album from the Big Apple’s Night Kills the Day. As its moniker suggests, this is a quartet that feeds on the gloam, and although the group claims a wide variety of influences that range from the Cure to Pink Floyd, it’s the gloomy post-punk goths that obviously left the biggest impression. This is particularly evident across the second half of the set, beginning with the evocative emo power ballad “All the Music in the World,” a desperate prayer to be delivered from reality. From there, the quartet storms straight into goth rock, powers down for “Enjoy the Ride”‘s shrouded goth, and pushes into a more luminescent darker realm on “Blindfolded,” before ending with the epic mix-and-match styling of “Even Sharks Don’t Kill for Fun.” In contrast, the driving “After Hours,” which opens the set, is built around an incandescent series of arpeggios, a musical exercise for keyboard and guitar transformed by a propulsive rhythm and delicately shaded atmospheres. “Rainbows in N.Y.C.” is an obvious homage to Depeche Mode, and just as infectious as anything that band has written, while the equally memorable “Dive!” evokes New Model Army at their most anthemic, although with a decidedly darker bent. But as gloomy as the band’s music is, the lyrics reach depths more familiar to the industrial world than the goth. No romancing death here — NKD’s dystopian visions dwell exclusively on an eternal internal battle, the struggle to make sense of life, and the war waged against our weak flesh to repress unwanted desires. Although religion is the set’s thematic focal point, it easily crosses denominational divides, resonating even with atheists in its quest to understand the negative impulses that drive us all. A stunning debut and a thoroughly haunting and evocative album. – Jo-Ann Greene
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