Finland’s Gangrened aren’t thinking of Ambient Doom Dream so much as a follow-up to 2021’s Deadly Algorithm (review here) as an aside intended to bridge the gap between that LP and the next round of post-doom punishment, whenever that might arrive. The title offers clues to the sound, and while I get that they’d risk corniness if they’d gone with ‘Nightmare’ instead of ‘Dream’ in naming the offering, rest assured that the sense of challenge of the prior album and the current of extremity that ran through it can still be felt in the rumbles and biting guitar feedback drones of the single “Transitional Trance 2,” which reminds of earliest, pre-street cred SunnO))) in its unbridled ceremony of harsh amplification. Underscored with pulses of synth, it is all the more encompassing at high volumes, where the tonal textures seem to take on a life of their own before ending suddenly as though someone walked into the room demanding to know what all the shaking walls and floors were about.

That’s the improvisational nature of the release coming through, of course, and the feel of “Transitional Trance 2” is correspondingly placed in Gangrened‘s rehearsal spot where the exploration of Ambient Doom Dream was captured. The band have gone through a shift in lineup, as well happen, but even just the single shows them continuing to move forward creatively, and elsewhere on the new release they’re also reinterpreting older movements and venturing into unknown spaces. If you didn’t hear Deadly Algorithm (which you can at the link above), “Transitional Trance 2” isn’t necessarily representative of the whole scope of their work, but in its oppressive atmosphere there is certainly consistency of purpose to be had.

They’ve got a private-press CD version coming, and you’ll find more info below. There’s a fair amount of description to work from — always welcome — and I think among the keywords you’ll find, the standout phrase is “Then this happened.” Surely this is the kind of noise that might change your plans for what’s next.

Courtesy of the PR wire:

GANGRENED – “AMBIENT DOOM DREAM” – New limited CD/Digital release. New song advanced and pre-order open

Album preorder: https://gangrened.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-doom-dream

“Transitional Trance 2” on streaming services: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/gangrened/transitional-trance-2

Ambient doom dream is the first long length music release of the current Gangrened line-up leaving aside drums and vocals. It captures an improvised piece of music from their second rehearsal together as Gangrened. This is the story behind this recording: The Friday May 5th 2022 Jon Imbernon, guitarist, and Olli Wikström, synth and sampler, met in Seinajöki (Finland) with Lassi Männikkö, previous Gangrened drummer, to pick up Jon´s guitar gear after the last gigs of previous line up to bring it to the new rehearsal room in Kokkola.

While the trip back to Kokkola and with the first hits of the Finnish summer felt like end of a era and beginning of a new one. This same day when arriving in Kokkola the new line up set up their gear in the new place and started jamming. Jon with his stereo guitar rig placed around the room. Olli with his set up for this occasion consisting of synth and sampler. Amps were properly loud, and Jon brought in a guitar lick which he was noddling with for a while already. The inspiration and excitement was flowing resulting into that they both realized to be able to create solid music in real time while improvising. Then it was decided to come back the day after and record the improvisation and develop the raw idea of jamming around that guitar lick.

Then this happened and it was captured 50 mins of the actual rehearsal/improvisation. The 2 of them improvising around that guitar lick and way way beyond….. The recording sounded specially good considering the minimal recording set up was used, even Jon considers that the guitar tone is more natural and loyal to his guitar sound than the guitar sound in Deadly Algorithm. So it was decided to release what was considered the highlight of the improvisation as a track as a digital single: “Turbulent Times”.

After that came the possibility of releasing the whole thing physically through Clouded Mind Records from Sweden, so the original mix was remixed and mastered by Miguel Souto in Spain putting the whole recording into a next level thanks to Miguel´s work. So here it is, the whole improvisation has been divided in 6 tracks, including “Turbulent Times” remixed and remastered and having as end a revision of the intro of the song “Kuningatar” from Deadly Algorithm recorded the way Jon was playing it live, more spacial, but with synth and sampler and without drums and bass.

“Ambient Doom Dream”, represents a exercise of immersion by Gangrened´s new line up in the more dreamy 90s, think about Kranky Records, or Slowdive’s “Pigmalyon” album blended with blurry heavy fuzzed guitars and droned synths all with a lot of feedback in the key of trance in between. A heavy dreamy experience from beginning to end. Besides “Turbulent Times, another highlight of “Ambient Doom Dream” is “Imbernon VS. Qstaw” second track and another descension into despair like “Harrbåda” from “Deadly Algorithm” was but deeper and heavier sounding, and created 100% on the fly while improvising.

Needs to be mentioned that this is not the second album of Gangrened, this is a evolutionary transitional release between first and second album.

“Ambient Doom Dream” will be released digitally in all streaming platforms and also on a small run of 33 handmade digipack CDs by the Swedish label Clouded Mind Records the Friday 5th May, a year after the recording was made. In the meantime, The 5th track “Transitional trance 2” extracted from this dreamy musical piece is released now (3rd march) in all streaming platforms.

Tracklisting:
1. Intro
2. Imbernon VS Qstaw
3. Transitional Trance 1
4. Turbulent Times
5. Transitional Trance 2
6. Kuningatar Intro (live revision)

Releases May 5, 2023

Mixing and mastering by Miguel Souto.

Jon Imbernon – Guitars and feedback in trance key.
Olli Wikström – Sampler, synth and effects.

http://www.gangrened.org
http://www.facebook.com/Gangrened
https://www.instagram.com/gangrened_band
http://gangrened.bandcamp.com

https://youtube.com/channel/UCWg2OlrPxoucBWu8xpqywpw
https://cloudedmindrecords.bandcamp.com/

Gangrened, Ambient Doom Dream (2023)

Gangrened, Ambient Doom Dream teaser