Funeral Rain Press Corps

California death metal trio Dreaming Dead are readying to unleash their long-awaited new full-length entitled Midnightmares. The follow-up to their 2009 Within One opus, was recorded from June through September of this year. All guitars and bass were tracked at the band’s own studio in downtown Los Angeles while the drums and vocals were tracked at Architeuthis Sound, (where Midnightmares was also mixed). The final product is nothing short of immense. Midnightmares offers up nine tracks of crushingly elaborate death metal anthems as led by band leader, vocalist and guitar priestess, Elizabeth Schall.

Dreaming Dead have continued their ascent to the mightiest of metal’s ranks with their sophomore release, Midnightmares. Retaining many of the extreme metal elements of Within One, Midnightmares showcases a more refined Dreaming Dead, playing with greater precision and offering an even deeper and more provocative musical experience.

As an added bonus, Midnightmares features cover art by renown metal artists Travis Smith, known for his striking work on records from Death, Sadus, Katatonia, Opeth, King Diamond and so many others.

Commented Schall and Mike Caffell (drums, vocals), of the release: “With Midnightmares, we wanted to record an album based around the concepts of night and, obviously, nightmares. We shaped our lyrics as such, and wrote music to capture both the violent, chaotic nature of dreams and the quiet tranquility of the night. We also crafted the album to flow as a whole, symbolizing the progression of an evening into night, and then into dawn; as if the songs couldn’t exist without one another. And, yes, we’re still bringing the speed and brutality.”

Midnightmares Track Listing:
1. Wake
2. Corpse Mountain
3. Overlord
4. Exile
5. In Memoriam
6. Lapse
7. Into The Depths
8. Midnightmares
9. Departure

Members Schall, Caffell and bassist Juan Ramirez have honed their characteristic aural assault of black metal, death metal, and thrash on a nationwide basis for the last four years, sharing the stage with the likes of Morbid Angel, Nile, Immolation, Krisiun, Monstrosity, Master, and Dying Fetus. This Midnightmares-era sees Dreaming Dead sowing the seeds of such time spent on the road, and those picking up the new album or catching the band live will no doubt be struck at how much further Dreaming Dead have taken their groundbreaking metal stylings.

Midnightmares will be released on October 31, 2011 as a digital download via the band’s official web site. Stay tuned for further details. In the meantime, check out the demo version of the title track at their Facebook page.

Genre: Doom, Sludge
Label: Independent

FIVEWILLDIE (Five Will Die, FWD, 5WD) have been one of my favorite bands ever since Funeral Rain Zine was a shitty hole on MySpace. These Irish lads were one of the first bands I hooked up with and ever since then I’ve been wanting to hear more from them. And now I have. And wow.

Worth & Soul is a killer doom album, perfect for fans of faster, angrier doom. Elements of death metal and hardcore are all over the place, with slow breakdowns and beatdowns. If you’re expecting a Katatonia or My Dying Bride here, you’re looking in the wrong direction. Instead what you’ll get is a face full of fists. Tracks take an anti-Christian bend as well, in a more atheistic way, and some spots (especially in “Seeds”) are even reminiscent of Tool.

The album itself starts with “Wrecks of Men”, which features Andy’s roar right from the start, going straight for the eyes. The riffage is slow, deep and solid. Perfect for headbanging while pounding your fist on the patch-laden vest of the bloke in front of you in the pit. The general feel really doesn’t change, but “Nothing Against Your Conscience” does slow it down even further for a time to get you ready for the next assault. “Sons of Horus” is just fucking vicious, viscous doom, and “Great Minds and Fools” keeps it up. “Blood and Soil” is one of those songs that I can see getting covered by other bands. It’s slower than your grandmother driving and just as scary. “Blame the Martyr” takes on a more classic doom feel at the start, then brings in that FWD flavor with tons of crunchy broken noses; one of the best tracks on the album. “Seeds” takes the same route, with a clean guitar at the start and some asskicking through the rest, with a slow and clean spot in the middle to breathe for a moment. The pit stays slow again for the final track, the title track “Worth & Soul”, a time to wipe the blood and sweat from your face and finish off another pair of beers before heading into the night.

So needless to say, FIVEWILLDIE have outdone themselves. Worth & Soul is by far their best work, and hopefully indicative of where they will be headed in the future. A fucking masterpiece, I’ll be spinning this shit for years to come.
10 out of 10.

03 Sons Of Horus by Five Will Die

FIVEWILLDIE on Facebook.

Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Death Metal
Label: Pulverised Records

In Mourning’s newest album is a crushingly heavy but beautifully melodic death metal disc. Bringing in little bits of doom, black metal, progressive metal, and straight up rock, I find it hard to find anything bad to say about this album at all.
I’d recommend it for fans of similar fare, such as Opeth, Katatonia, My Dying Bride, and Anathema. Actually, after writing that sentence, I’d say pretty much think Peaceville, and you’ll do fine. It wouldn’t surprise me if Peaceville ended up working with these gents in the future.
8 out of 10.

In Mourning on MySpace.

Genres: Death Metal, Doom
Label: Candlelight Records

Fuck I love doom, as anyone who’s read this site for awhile can tell you. My favorite album of all time is doom, and it spawned half of the name of the label that Typhon and I run together (Deathless Reality Records). My fourth favorite album of all time is doom too, and now, a new favorite is discovered.
October Tide is a band with tons of history, and only three albums. They formed during a short break-up of Katatonia, founded by Frederik Norrman and Jonas Renske, and they’ve barely done interviews or played live, only keeping a low profile and achieving a real cult status in the underground. And now they’ve released a new album with Candlelight, and it’s awesome.
Musically, it’s very doomy, melancholic and a little bit just plain depressing. But it’s the vocals that really take the front for me. Deep, throaty death/doom vocals, courtesy of Tobias Netzell. It’s perfect for fans of Griftegård, Draconian, and Paradise Lost.
9.5 out of 10.

October Tide on MySpace.

Genres: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock
Label: Armoury Records, Mystic Production

Votum were the first of three CDs I chose to review from this package from Eagle Rock, if for no reason it just happened to be the first one I grabbed. And I’m glad I did. This CD is just fucking awesome. It’s like Opeth and Anathema, who the band cites as big influences, but it’s also got some more going on. Mostly due to Maciej Kosinski’s voice, which is deep and full of power, and also Zbigniew Szatkowski’s keys, which are in part atmospheric and ambient, but also at times more traditionally rhythmic. Sometimes atmospherically rhythmic.
The shortest song is just three seconds short of four minutes, with a pair in the 6+ minute and a pair in the 9+ minute range, but they don’t drag on, which is a relief. There are some bands that can do longer song structures, and some that can’t, but Votum are aces at them. I’d love to hear them do a 15 minute song.
As an added bonus for prog rock fans, it’s a concept album in music, lyric, and art, all tied together to give the listener something not just to hear but something to hold dearly to while the somber, dark tunes drag you to a pit of gorgeous bliss.
8.5 out of 10.