https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Dream Death Premiere “Cold Hard Light” from Dissemination

dream death

Reignited Pittsburgh sludgers Dream Death will release their third album, Dissemination, on March 4 via Rise Above Records. It follows just three years behind their 2013 reunion outing, Somnium Excessum (discussed here), which though they had released a live outing and a compilation in the time between, was their first studio full-length since their 1987 debut, Journey into Mystery. Here’s where the story gets complicated. Five years after that album was released, in 1992, the current lineup of Dream Death — guitarist/vocalist Brian Lawrence, guitarist Terry Weston, bassist Richard Freund and drummer Mike Smail — issued their debut as PenanceThe Road Less Travelled, on a then-nascent Rise Above, and a winding 24-year course brings them back to that same label for Dissemination as Dream Death.

The more things change? Well, in a way, yeah, because listening to Dissemination, the vibe is that the shifts in sound that Somnium Excessum presented have been cast off as Dream Death dig back to the bitterness and death metal-style chug that has cast their influence over a generation of extreme sludge. “Conform or die,” shouts Lawrence in the opening title-track, and the stakes remain similarly severe throughout, and while cuts like “The Other Side” dares to work in a bit of melody and closer “In Perpetuum” takes a more personal lyrical viewpoint than some of the direct social commentary in cuts like “Crawling,” “Cold Hard Light” or the raging “Neutral Ground,” the crux of Dissemination is still seeing-red angry, and that remains true regardless of pace or any other turns Dream Death might present in the material.

As a running theme, it’s a disaffection that leaves little room for argument, the feeling of lost agency pervasive among the downer riffing of “Expendable Blood Flow,” violent gutturalisms met by channel-swapping static and toy piano transitions before the even-moodier “Crawling” puts worms in the brain as a lead-in for “Cold Hard Light,” which brings lurching death metal groove to the foredream death dissemination and only builds in intensity as it moves methodically forward, through tempo switches united by an overriding sense of disgust. The subsequent “All in Vain” and “Dominion” follow suit, the former with a slight touch of C.O.C. in the chorus that’s just as likely unintentional and the latter with a thrashier take overall, the guitars becoming a flurry of low squibbling, Slayer-esque but shifting into a temporary slowdown in the midsection before raging to the end. As the longest cut at 5:52, “The Other Side” is somewhat more ambient, but its core mission remains consistent, and “Nothing Ever Will” brings the central idea of Dissemination back into focus with its opening lines, “The machine gets/What the machine wants/The machine wants us to die/More each day.”

Ultimately, “Nothing Ever Will” and “Neutral Ground” summarize between them a decent portion of what’s driving Dissemination. Stylistically working between aggressive doom, raw thrash and death metal, they trade off grooves and paces but keep the central pissed off thematic like a current of electricity running them both. Even as it falls to “In Perpetuum” to expand the album’s context, Dream Death don’t necessarily sacrifice impact to make that happen, a sample mirroring the opening hypnosis and some organ adding a creeping vibe to early acoustics, but the chug kicks in at about the two-minute mark and Dream Death are still very much themselves. They cap with that same hypnotic sample — literally, it sounds like someone is being hypnotized — which makes for a quiet ending compared to much of the teeth-clenched, fist-tightened onslaught preceding. I don’t know if there’s resolution, or catharsis in taking Dissemination‘s central themes and using them as a lens to look inward, but “In Perpetuum” does effectively add to what they’re doing sound-wise without giving up the fury they’ve displayed all along, and for that it’s a noteworthy finish.

Now past 30 years since their inception, Dream Death have long been an underrated band, a kind of extra-angry footnote in the history of sludge, which has veered more toward punk influence than the definitively metallic style the Pittsburgh four-piece proffer, but Dissemination proves they’re able not only to draw on their past to match with current inspiration, but to take those ideas forward into current relevance as well. Of course it’s not as raw as Journey into Mystery or their prior demos — nor should it be — but Dream Death‘s third LP is so clearheaded in its ferocity that it seems all the more vital and all the more punishing.

Today I’m thrilled to host the premiere of “Cold Hard Light,” which you’ll find in the embed below. Enjoy:

Dream Death, “Cold Hard Light” from Dissemination

Somewhere in the darkest depths of Pittsburgh, Dream Death have risen from their self-imposed grave. After making their full-length debut in 1987 with the groundbreaking doom/death/thrash masterstrokeJourney Into Mystery—an album that somehow bridged the groaning gaps between Celtic Frost, Slayer and Saint Vitus while going on to influence many a notable death metal and death/doom faction—the vastly underappreciated band pulled their own plug in ’89 and formed the more traditional doom outfit Penance. The latter’s 1992 album The Road Less Travelled was one of the earliest Rise Above releases, while Dream Death began what would prove to be a 22-year hibernation. In 2011, vocalist/guitarist Brian Lawrence, drummer Mike Smail (formerly of both Pentagram and Cathedral), bassist Richard Freund and guitarist Terry Weston regrouped and eventually stormed the studio for Dream Death’s 2013 comeback album, Somnium Excessum.

The band’s third and latest, Dissemination, marks the return of The Road Less Travelled lineup to Rise Above, this time in their resurgent Dream Death incarnation. Forged in the dank recesses of Lawrence’s basement, Dissemination is the apogee of a creative process that recaptured and reinforced the singular spirit of Dream Death’s late ’80s triumphs. “While I’m proud of the material on Somnium, I think there was some experimentation there that could have been reigned in a bit,” Lawrence offers. “The tracks on Dissemination are much more focused and delivered with intent.”

The opening title track was the first song written for Dissemination, and ultimately formed the basis for one of the album’s lyrical themes. “Mike had the title before we ever had a song,” Lawrence explains. “He wanted something to express the idea of people blindly accepting the crap that’s dished out to them on a daily basis and how little ability they have to change it even if they were aware of it in the first place. You think you’re in control of your life? Guess again.”

Dream Death on Thee Facebooks

Preorder at Rise Above Records

iTunes preorder

Preorder at Amazon

Tags: , , , , ,

Leave a Reply