Album Review: Dream Unending - Tide Turns Eternal
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Sometimes when you’re listening to various bands you love it can become strange to think that certain members may be capable of producing music that’s outside what you’re already used to hearing from them. This is very much the case with Dream Unending, an extremely recent creation from the minds of Tomb Mold’s Derrick Vella and Innumerable Forms’ Justin DeTore. A new joint band from cemented stalwarts of modern and ruthless death metal, Dream Unending offers a unique perspective for fans of these aforementioned bands and established extreme metal to peer into something that may prove to be a rather different and enlightening experience. The first few Singles of this record really intrigued me as it was very clear from the outset that the band here were not aspiring for a conventional death metal aesthetic, pointing towards something more ethereal and harder to define. As much as I’m a fan of anything heavy, dark and destructive, I’m rather susceptible for anything within the realms of Extreme Metal that possesses bizarre or otherworldly tendencies. So, let’s just see what on earth Tide Turns Eternal is all about.
Opening out with a quaint but spectral guitar piece is the best way the band could have introduced themselves for new audiences. I’ve heard a few snippets here and there of what we may come to expect from Dream Unending’s sudden and debut full length, so I do believe that such an ambient guitar piece was the most appropriate way the band could have unveiled themselves. There’s a synth that underlies the opening piece that is also carried through to the introduction of the first real song on the album and even then, the band don’t explode with energy, they restrain themselves. What follows is a rather mellow yet ominous flow of music that feels to creep and lurk it’s way through its duration. Where most bands would want to crush you into the back of your seat from the first moment, Dream Unending have the wits and foreknowledge to understand that embedding you within a more spectral soundscape and then incorporating more rudimentary death metal elements can be more effective since you’ve been prompted to expect the two rather juxtaposed styles that will continuously intermingle with one another.
I was really able to vibe with the band’s approach to songwriting herein. Even when the contemporary death metal is playing, that ambient and ghostly aspect to their playing is never far away before being implemented once more. Even when the growling is happening and the riffs come down on us with doomed aesthetic, the ethereal nature of their songwriting is forever present whether it be a synth underplaying the riffs and growling or the chiming of bells or what may even sound like a harpsichord playing in the distant background. The solos too hold themselves back but that’s not to say they lack entertainment value; it’s immediately evident from the first few songs that Dream Unending are undergoing a rather mature look at avant-garde death metal, demonstrating that when done right, less really can be more. However, there are moments where because of the ethereal segments intersected where they’ve been placed, the more powerful and crushing death metal aspects will rise with cathartic power nigh on reaching crescendo levels. No matter what happens, Dream Unending have your firm and undivided attention.
The production here is just sublime as while it’s not completely and utterly clean to the point where you could theoretically see your face in the record, it harnesses an incredibly crisp and gorgeous aesthetic to its sound. The drums, notably the cymbals, have this serenely refined tangibility to their presence whereby you feel like you could reach into the record and grasp them with your own hands. The riffs possess weight yet never feel like a bench press is needed to house them atop your shoulders, they never come across like they’re digging into you. The spectral synthesisers, the ambient elements, these more avant-garde pieces come off like they are the surrounding hue upon which the album’s sound is constantly rebounding off. The more ethereal elements therefore don’t feel like they’re directed at us, more like wrapping around us. You could imagine yourself being lifted as if atop a nimbus cloud as the softer sections of this record play, it’s gentile hypnotism is effective.
What i also picked up on was how the band have fairly long tracks here and yet at no point did I feel like the lengths were boring me. With tracks that can be anywhere from 6 - 12 minutes long there’s often the possibility that the songwriting can leave something to be desired especially when we’re concerning what is ultimately a work of death/doom. However it’s striking how quickly the time can seem to pass by as the band play, I think this boils down to the intersections of spectral and avant-garde songwriting elements that aren’t merely a fad for the band but stand as integral structural pieces to their record here. If their songwriting was wholly composed of the rudimentary death/doom aesthetic the album, in my mind, would still be a decent release however I don’t think it would be as impactful or powerful without the inclusion of the more ghostly and ambient aspects the band incorporate so deliberately. That serene, near psychedelic element gives their songwriting the needed variety that death/doom sometimes lacks and therefore because the band intersperse their songwriting thoroughly, the track durations feel much shorter and easier to digest. There was never an occasion where I felt trepidation for an upcoming long track, I felt like I could dive into it as easily and comfortably as you’d slip on a long-worn suit. It just feels right to listen to this.
In conclusion, this is a really weird album for all the right reasons. I loved how this record doesn’t close out with a bombastic and destructive surge of power, instead it’s a sombre guitar piece all the while female, clean vocals perform with crystal clarity. This is an album that can be equally enjoyed whether you’re after something lighter or heavier or even simultaneously. I was initially unsure how the spectral element would impact on the experience of this record and how the songwriting would interweave it amongst the conventional death metal aspect, but after my listen to Tide Turns Eternal, I can confidently say the band interwove it wondrously whereby that ethereal aspect of their songwriting isn’t some hastily added fad. It’s an actual, coherent force that elevates the album and band in question to eye-opening heights. The band’s members in question may be more renowned in other groups (Tomb Mold, Innumerable Forms etc) however this album shines a light on what these members may also present in the form of extreme metal. Extremity isn’t always founded in brutality. It can be left-field, otherworldly and in this case, it can cross the impassable aether in more ways than one and offer us something of tangible intangibility. Highly recommended.
