Dead As Dreams
The way Mondo has been hyping this I'm expecting like a 10/10 album.
Track 1 This one just starts right off with the guitar. Holy **** what even are these vocals?! They remind me a tad of The Body's vocals, but maybe with a bit more substance to them. There's also these chiming bells in the back of the verses that reminds of something from Liturgy's last album. The drumming is right in the pocket which is good because a lot of times the drums get off on bm records. The chord progressions are immense. Loving how progressively minded this song is, it just goes through part after part seamlessly. Is this a guitar solo??? That is not something I'm used to in a black metal album at all; on top of that it's a pretty damn interesting one too. Great great opener.
Track 2 This is the long track of the album and also the title track. It's starting with some ambient guitar feedback. Now an extremely atmospheric guitar passage is working its way in. Why can't more post-metal/post-black metal sound like this exactly? Deafheaven wishes they could write something with this impact. Okay now back to a more traditional black metal sounds, although not really it's still quite strange. I can definitely hear the Americanisms in the band's playing, but that is by no means a bad thing, in fact it achieves something not a lot of USBM can achieve, a melding of American styled metal with European black metal. I'd say this almost has a prog influence about it, the track has an ever changing scope in sound and style that I've never heard in black metal before; in fact the closest example I could provide would be Thantifaxath if they were proggier or Liturgy if they were more "metal". The sound the guitars get is almost hypnotic and psychedelic instead of chilling and wintry like lots of BM. Oh this ending is wonderful, the use of jazz chords is ****ing incredible, and provides an entire change in pace for the epic of a song. Incredible honestly.
Track 3 Got this galloping beat behind this one that is making me actually want to dance a little. The music itself feels incredibly uplifting and powerful, also it's one of the first black metal songs to be played in a straight up major key, the screams are still twisted which just adds to the empowered aesthetic. Nvm total change in pace to a slower more solemn fell which provides an interesting divide between the two parts of the song so far, not to mention the chord progression is amazingly interesting without the explanation. I like that as this song progresses it gets increasingly twisted and sinister with each passing section, it makes for some very interesting tonal interplay. Also did I mention how top notch the vocals are? Because they are... they are gut-wrenching and at the same time completely anguished, heartbreaking even. Great outro to another phenomenal song, more post-bm shaz that I can't get enough of, and some surprisingly thrash tinged stuff right at the very end.
Track 4 Oh. ****. Yes. This is already a banger straight out of the gate. Great thrashing guitars and our man the vocalist going nuts over all of the madness. Funny enough the main riff has this swinging feel to it that is so ****ing infectious it makes me want to dance. Huh' for a a black metal album this can get surprisingly dance able. There was tasty little bass interlude somewhere in there that I felt was at least worth noting. Right after there's this descending chord pattern that keeps repeating that just feels so satisfying everytime it goes around. Lots of thrash influence all over this one which I'm completely 100% digging as a change in pace for the album.
Track 5 This is really the first instance of droning black metal on this album, it reminds me of more blackened, blackened sludge metal (a la Primitive Man or Coffinworm). Alright change of pace into a more recognizable form of atmo black metal, so far this track is on par with the rest of the album. The section at around the 7 minute mark is just absolute gold, some of the most melodic, beautiful guitar playing this album has had to offer so far. Everything about this song has just come together perfectly, godammit I love this so much.
Final Verdict: Everything about this album from the performances to the songwriting was absolutely incredible. It's influence is more than visible in the modern scene of black metal bands. I don't have too much more to say than what has already been said in the review, so with that I give this...
9/10