Sadly the band announced their break up in February but music is eternal so they will always be available at the end of some earbuds. What if I told you it doesn’t get any better? released on March 27 is the 5th album from the Melbourne based band.
Using a combination of rhythmic hard-core, electronica and metalcore the band have come out with an album that oscillates between hardcore to slow and thoughtful. While a song like Explicit is best sung with your middle finger in the air the pace can change at the flick of a pickup selector to something like Regrets which gives you time to think of the things that make you both alive and commiserate times best forgotten. This is an album that has the potential to satiate the appetite of anyone who is keen on music that crosses various styles. The opening track Feel so empty sets the tone with a build-up in electronic tone to then go into a catchy melodic track to then be followed by a more aggressive song in Don’t disappear but still using a melodic base. As mentioned in Track 3, Explicit let’s rip with anger and dropped tuning to rip out a similar vibe with more angst. From here on out we get a variation of these styles until we finish up we a cooling off the session at the end of the album with Regrets.
The album cover is an interesting one.
It is boldly understated to become a visual oxymoron.
A bright ripe apricot coloured album with the album title taking centre stage in simple font whilst the band name features in the top left corner as an almost catalogue entry. A number of bands have done something of this sort but what Dream on, Dreamer has managed to do is to give a sense of understated effervescence by adding a few circles here and there that has the ability to liven it all up so that even if the album design is minimal is has simple components to it give it complexity. A circle is a simple shape: one continuous line connected end to end. But when you think about a circle philosophically people could write tomes about them. In this context, I imagine bubbles in this orange void that gives hope and perspective in a sea of strange normalcy. When the album is played alongside it then this will complement the excitement that the album cover brings. At the same time, you might look at the album cover and think it’s way too simple. Beauty is in the thought process behind it.
If you are looking for the hardest band around then this won’t be it.
While their tunes have aggression it is there much like a book has a hardcover that serves a purpose to provide balance for the content within rather than the edge of a blade. While most tracks could be played on the radio December is one of those tracks that is probably the catchiest and combines a lot of what they are. The album has a well-mastered feel and a good feel to it. It can be put on and sung to at any stage.
Release Year: 2020
Label: Believe
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Byron Lotz
