ALBUM REVIEW: Song Of Salvation – Dream Unending

Somehow it’s only been a year since DREAM UNENDING‘s death-doom debut, Tide Turns Eternal. A whole new outlet for TOMB MOLD‘s Derrick Vella, and INNUMERABLE FORMS and SUMERLANDS‘ Justin DeTore, their foray into grander, more glacial sounds was a million miles away from the aural violence they’d become known for. This time out, on their swift follow up Song Of Salvation, they’ve pushed the envelope once again.

Described by the duo as ‘dream-doom’, Song Of Salvation features all of the ambience, tension, crushing devastation and mournful lamentation you might expect from such a genre tag. In the main, this is an album that takes its time in methodically building up to passages of aural malice, and meticulously repeats the process in myriad ways to keep listeners on their toes. Bookended by the 14-minute title track and the 16-minute Ecstatic Reign, Song Of Salvation works in an epic realm, resorting to the unfathomably slow and heavy characteristics of funeral doom. Theirs is a deliberate and considered approach though that doesn’t go in all guns blazing. Because before DeTore‘s primal roars cut through Vella‘s pyroclastic flow riffs, there are moments of tranquility that add to the ruinous beauty of it all. The total journey from that serene aura to total desolation creates an experience that feels like it should register on a Richter scale.

While DREAM UNENDING are at their core a two-man band, they’ve enlisted the help of varied and veritable talents. Secret Grief features guest vocals from Phil Swanson, and trumpets are contributed by ambient composer and multi-instrumentalist Leila Abdul-Rauf. Meanwhile, album closer Ecstatic Reign includes vocals from McKenna Rae and Richard Poe, both of whom appeared on DREAM UNENDING‘s last outing, as well as TOMB MOLD drummer Max Klebanoff for one final righteous roar-off against DeTore. The willingness to expand their sound and incorporate these different inputs and influences makes for an incredibly and indelibly textured product that takes this from atmospheric doom and toward the avant garde. It surprises and delights while maintaining that dark, dank core of misery and despair, to keep Song Of Salvation feeling fresh and new on repeated listens.

The flipside of that praise though is that there’s not a whole lot that sticks. Away from actively listening to Song Of Salvation, each of the tracks is tough to recall, meaning that as time goes by, the likes of Unrequited and Secret Grief risk fading back into the shadows from whence they spawned, to only be occasionally stumbled upon as you flick through your music library. This is an album that needs to be experienced in full, in the moment – that’s how its appeal and character really comes to the fore to be best appreciated. And presumably, DREAM UNENDING‘s divine hope is that listeners will continue to return to this in the weeks, months, years to come.

Overall, DREAM UNENDING have produced a competent, brave and accomplished album in Song Of Salvation. Stalking, atmospheric and stirring, it’s fantastic proof of what can be achieved when a band broadens their horizons. And while Vella and DeTore will go back to playing hard, fast, disgusting death metal with their superb main bands, we will always have this gorgeous slice of dream-doom to calm the raging waters.

Rating: 8/10

Song Of Salvation is out now via 20 Buck Spin.

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