Three years can make a dramatic change in a band’s musical direction. Unfortunately, the change doesn’t always come out as intended.

Haste the Day’s 2005 effort, “When Everything Falls,” is a gem in the hardcore community.

It’s a rare album because it manages to be melodic and catchy but doesn’t sacrifice any ground in the area that defines hardcore: brutal, metal-based riffs under fierce screaming vocals.

In 2007, the band changed lead vocalists and produced the unsatisfying metalcore transition “Pressure the Hinges.”

The album, however, was not without high notes, as new vocalist Stephen Keech demonstrated a much wider vocal range than the former – and exalted by fans – vocalist, Jimmy Ryan.

Additionally, the album was not void of a few good tracks.

On its latest effort “Dreamer,” Haste the Day tries to merge influence from the band’s earlier catalogue with the new sound present on “Pressure the Hinges.”

Unfortunately, the style adjustment fails to bring back what made Haste the Day such a distinct and creative band in the first place.

The breakdowns are missing the band’s trademark lead guitar works – no doubt due to the departure of lead guitarist Jason Barnes – and the clean vocal sections lack the emotional charge of the band’s older works.

The tracks on “Dreamer” aren’t bad, but any long-term Haste the Day fan knows the band is capable of much more than this.

The tracks “68,” “Mad Man,” “Haunting” and “Sons of the Fallen Nation” are pretty good but never really hit any moments of musical bliss, like the final progression in the song “Substance” off the band’s debut LP.

Maybe the days of “American Love” and trademark Haste the Day are long in the past, but that doesn’t mean the band can’t improve upon the styles of the songs that did work for them in the past.