“Can we overcome our nature and make higher minded choices to better humanity and our planet? Or are we lost in a never-ending cycle of shadow?”
That is the question pondered by progressive metal outfit Dreadnought from Denver, Colorado, on their fifth full length, The Endless. A relevant question, certainly, in times of record heat waves, forest fires and extreme drought. In order to represent the discussion in all its facets, the band employs a blend of genres – a fitting approach. The conclusion they arrive at, and whether they arrive at one, is open to interpretation and depends to a certain extent on your own world view, on whether you are an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist. Let’s just say that the music offers passages for every kind of sentiment, often overlapping and intermixed.
Although especially fitting for the chosen subject of their new album, the blend of genres has been the defining aspect of Dreadnought’s music since their beginnings in 2012. From the start, the band’s aim, they say, was to combine all their musical backgrounds to form something exciting and unique. Under the tag of extreme and prog metal the band thus fuses doom, folk, jazz, classical music, black metal, and post rock. The amalgam is made complete by the inclusion of both, harsh and clean vocals.
The album and its six tracks offer a rather unusual listen with great contrasts. From a jazzy, river-like flow and crooning vocals to ferocious soundscapes with piercing, guttural screams, it’s all there. The changes and switches are constant, present in every track and continue throughout the album. Everything is governed by an artsy feel, as is often the case with Profound Lore releases.
The album opens with “Worlds Break” and delivers the first shock somewhere around the three-minute mark, when a high-pitched, dreamy vocal performance accompanied by primarily mellow tunes is suddenly replaced by unnerving, tumultuous drumming and harsh vocals. “Midnight Moon”, similarly, first leads the listener into trance through the prolonged repetition of a riff and a more conventional song structure, but soon enough the harsh vocals return, and the established structure is quickly undone. With the title track “The Endless,” drama picks up in the vocals and is accompanied by a foreboding buzzing in the background. After the celestial drones of “Liminal Veil” follows “Gears of Violent Endurance”, my favourite piece of music on the album. I especially like the track’s beginning, its ferocious, rousing energy and the angry, gutsy vocals. “Paradigm Mirror” ends the album on a sad, melancholic, disillusioned and altogether calmer note.
Has humanity succeeded in turning the ship around? It doesn’t sound like it did.
I found The Endless by Dreadnought an engaging listen, with numerous outstanding passages, especially those of the harsh kind. I struggled somewhat with the high-pitched clean vocals, because of their often almost unbearable sweetness. A more straightforward song structure would have made the tracks more accessible and less artsy. Because, even with the best intentions, it is entirely possible to make things too complicated and too artsy.
(7/10 Slavica)
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