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Review & Full Album Stream: Polymerase, Dreams & Realities I & II

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Quezon City, Philippines-based stoner rockers Polymerase will release their complete Dreams & Realities I & II collection on June 20 through Sliptrick Records. There’s a fair amount of parsing to be done in order to understand the construction of the 88-minute release, which combines the two eight-song outings, Dreams & Realities I, which was released earlier this year as a standalone EP, and the not-yet-unveiled Dreams & Realities II, a follow-up working under the same modus. If you’re doing the match and figuring out that for each half of the total Dreams & Realities to be circa-44 minutes and an EP doesn’t make sense, that’s where said modus comes into play, since the last four of the eight songs on each part are instrumental versions of the four songs preceding. So, Dreams & Realities I brings opener/longest track (immediate points) “Space Carousel” (7:09), “The Sage” (5:57), “Blade of the Demon God” (3:51) and “Evil Hand” (6:40), and then loops back to a sans-vocal/sans-Apollo-11-launch-sample “Space Carousel” (6:40), and so on. The same goes for Dreams & Realities II, with “Children of Terra” (5:43), “Dreams and Realities” (5:34), “Zodiac Queen” (5:35) and “Riding the Crystals of Heaven” (4:09) coupled with the same songs minus the vocal tracks.

It’s a fascinating experiment on the part of the band — guitarist/vocalist Vincent Jose, bassist Bobby Legaspi and drummer Ziggy Cerda (Fabio Allessandrini plays on “Evil Hand”) — and it is striking to realize just how much the listener is inclined to fill in when the vocals aren’t there to lead through verses and choruses. “Blade of the Demon God” loses its hook, though you can still almost hear it even when it’s not there, but a deep-mixed layer of lead guitar is revealed beneath the main riff, and “Dreams and Realities” seems to answer back by letting that same lead layer float overtop instead of being buried. The personalities of the songs are changed as “The Sage,” which seems to be communing with earlier Devin Townsend in its distorted clarity, gives up the harsher barks from Jose that highlight its metallic underpinnings to become an exploration of soloing later on. And while the opening of “Zodiac Queen” wobbles like Nirvana‘s “Come as You Are,” the harder crashes more prominent in the instrumental version of the chorus, the runs of double-kick drumming, and steady, sharp execution speak also to roots in harder metals on the part of the band.

Because each piece cycles through twice, one in listening will pick up and recognize parts in the instrumentals from their vocalized counterparts, whether it’s the snare runs behind the mellow guitar on “Evil Hand” before it reopens to the double-kick chorus or the weirdo blowout of “Riding the Crystals of Heaven,” which is trad metal and garage stoner in kind and feels somehow also inspired by New Wave in its vocal melody, but that instrumentally centers the relatively earthbound groove on which that melody would otherwise rest. The songs invariably end up in conversation with themselves, each one asking what the vocals add here, what guitar, bass and drums are doing there, and how one derives mood and perceives intention from that. Floating between Dreams & Realities II and I, one finds “Children of Terra” an almost mournful, perhaps suitably apocalyptic procession that takes the distortion of “The Sage” and sets it to a riff that could just as easily be declarative black metal, but holds to rock in its rhythm and stretches out in the concluding solo, echoing a bit the mood of “Evil Hand” as it closes the first part’s A and B sides.

I’ll confess I don’t know the recording circumstance for the full collection. Dreams & Realities I was self-produced at Glasstone Studio and Prince of the Arrow Records, both in Quezon City, and Normand Yu at Glasstone handled mixing and mastering, but whether Dreams & Realities II was done at the same time, I can’t say. The two parts are fairly consistent in sound — you could easily put the four with-voice songs from each together and have a straightforward single-LP — but longer songs surround the relatively brief charge of “Blade of the Demon God,” where on Dreams & Realities II there’s some less disparity in track length as the songs are between four and five-plus minutes. But that also just be how they chose to organize the outcome of a single session as well, and considering how much thought obviously went into the presentation of the entirety of Dreams & Realities I & II, it wouldn’t be out of character for the ordering to be likewise purposeful. But one way or the other, from the warm fuzz of “Space Carousel” and classic-in-the-’90s-sense-feeling solo there to the last howling, galloping wash that’s the culmination as Polymerase indeed ride out the groove of “Riding the Crystals of Heaven,” the broader sense is one of exploring different ideas in heavy songwriting and figuring out how to manifest their influences through their own (figurative) voice. They’re getting there.

In 2021, Polymerase offered the four-song EP Unostentatious (review here) and set themselves on the path that’s thus far brought them here. Their style is still in development and one can hear they’re searching to find that balance between heavy metal and heavy rock, but that’s part of what makes Dreams & Realities I & II exciting, since while they’re doing that they’re also showing a willingness to mess with the form of the material itself, which not every band is ready or brave enough to do. Imagine being a singer and saying, “Okay, now one without the vocals.” Easier when you’re also playing guitar, but still. That evident lack of ego will only serve them well as they continue their progression from here, whether that’s toward a proper full-length or another four-songer or something else, and the desire to put the songs first while also changing the intention behind individual pieces, being able to harness an atmospheric impression in a raw recording, conveying melody and craft with DIY spirit and the fervency of the converted. There are moments where the audio is rough, but it’s a deep passion driving the material and it comes through as duly unabashed. They advise getting stoned and listening. Addled or lucid, Dreams & Realities I & II is a righteous compiling of Polymerase‘s themes, aural and other, and a significant forward step on their hopefully ongoing journey.

The complete Dreams & Realities I & II can be streamed on the player below, followed by more PR wire background on the narrative taking place across the two EPs and more.

Enjoy:

Polymerase, Dreams & Realities I & II album premiere

Dreams And Realities is a two part album project by Philippine stoner rock group Polymerase. The band started recording in 2021 and the idea was to create a story of a traveler in space that was able to experience time differently thus the track Space Carousel. Other tracks such as Blade Of The Demon God, The Sage and Evil Hand are part of the journey where the traveler in space was able to reflect within himself and then becoming a sage using the negative and positive force of the universe through the blade of the demon god. Evil Hand is the representation of the dark emotions of the human nature, even though humanity will strive to be good there will be an ego that will pull him down into himself which will either be for his survival or for selfish reasons.

Part II is about the psychiatric aspect of the project. The beginning is the continuing journey reflecting the society thus the creation of Children Of Terra. It is the process of questioning what has become of humanity itself. It is like asking what have we been doing for the past years that would make our lives significant in all existence. Dreams And Realities is a track where a certain individual gets lost in his own dreams that opens up a new reality for him. The person gets lost in his own reality and he cannot perceive what is real in his waking life, thus becoming schizophrenic. The track, Zodiac Queen is the devotion of a person to someone in his darkest situation. It is where at the point of addiction for a certain person, even the relationship becomes too toxic that he still stays until eventually getting eaten by the darkness that he himself has given. The last track is about experimental drugs that enhances your psychic potential. It is all about traveling within yourself and finding a peace resembling heaven.

All tracks have instrumental counterpart so if one person smokes while listening he/she would be able to reflect more through the vibrations of the music.

Dreams And Realities I Tracklist:
01. Space Carousel
02. The Sage
03. Blade Of The Demon God
04. Evil Hand
05. Space Carousel (Instrumental)
06. The Sage (Instrumental)
07. Blade Of The Demon God (Instrumental)
08. Evil Hand (Instrumental)

Dreams And Realities II Tracklist:
01. Children Of Terra
02. Dreams And Realities
03. Zodiac Queen
04. Riding The Crystals Of Heaven
05. Children Of Terra (Instrumental)
06. Dreams And Realities (Instrumental)
07. Zodiac Queen (Instrumental)
08. Riding The Crystals Of Heaven (Instrumental)