When american
Fallujah released their ep, «Nomadic», back in 2013, it was a band that immediately
caught my attention. With their second fullenght, «The Flesh Prevails», released
the following year, the band showed potential to be a band, without the backing
of a record company, that had the potential to climb to the top of any metal
toplists of the year, including a second place in my own list. These releases were twoextremely strong albums, that pushed the
band in the forefront of the atmospheric death metal subgenre, and landed them
a deal with one of the biggest metal label out there, Nuclear Blast.
Like they did on «The Flesh Prevails», which was more of a
concept album, where it was the wholeness of the album that made it so good, and not any of the tracks in peticular, is the same formula they follow on «Dreamless»,
and you can hear they have put much thought behind each part, both the metal
and the electronics, and a repeating theme through the album as a whole. I’m
glad the band hasn’t felt pressured, neither by their new label, nor by
themselves, to release a new album as fast as possible, but have taken their
time to make as good an album as possible, of course with all the backing a
deal with a large record company can give.
The result is a more organice album, something you clearly
hear in the electronic elements, which makes the music flow, and take the sound
of the band more towards chill electronica and lighter ambient. The two female
backingvocalists that contributes, makes the music come more alive, clearly better
than the computergenerated vocals they have used on previous records.
It has taken me more than a few spins to get into the album,
and yes, it’s once again a quality release from the american band, but I don’t
get the same satisfaction as I got from «The Flesh Prevails», thought this is more
than a few steps in the right direction. The singles are on average much better
than on their previous record, and as allways, it is the atmospheric goodsounding guitar that
binds the music together.
The growling parts have a tendency to be maybe too generic,
a resemblance they share with the female talking sequence in Fidelio, that have a bit too standard
ambient influences, even though I should point out the ambience here, that
really makes Fallujah stand out from similar bands, and as mentioned earlier, a
very good production in these elements.
I like what Fallujah has done on «Dreamless», and once
again they show much ambition, something I would believe influence future
releases, especially when they now have a big label backing them. I wish the
incorporated more dary elements from the ambient scene and similar genres, but
once again a very good job, and the album feels in many ways like a restless
wandering in a wavy landscape.