Dreamarcher – Dreamarcher (Review)

Dreamarcher are a metal band from Norway and this is their debut album.

What do you get if you take jazz-trained musicians and get them to unleash mayhem via emotive post-whatever distortion and passionate delivery? You get Dreamarcher. Their eponymous debut is 33 minutes of searing beauty that takes a variety of metal influences to produce a record of scope, scale and intrigue.

I suppose with the way that this juggles darkness and light that this is somewhere between post-metal and post-hardcore. The songs juxtapose abrasive heaviness with resplendent beauty, showing a band that are not only adept at both, but that also know how to marry the two together.

Mix bands like Muck, Moloken, Ephel Duath, Crowhurst and Isis into a pot and you’ll have a starting point for Dreamarcher’s sound.

The tracks are each considered and thoughtful, and obvious attention has been paid to the details of the songs. A subtle melodicism infects the work, which manifests itself in various different guises across the tracks.

The flip side of this, of course, is the band’s ability to be full-on heavy with waves of distortion whenever they need to. Blast beats are used, giving the band a vaguely blackened sheen in places, although this is not a huge part of their sound as these facets of their delivery are from more of a hardcore background than that of black metal.

Elements of jazz, punk and even indie war for place alongside the post-metal and more abrasive elements of their sound. Dreamarcher are clearly not a band who are content to abide by restrictive genre rules, and this album is both varied and inventive.

All manner of different vocals make appearances throughout, from cleans to screams and a lot in the middle. Like the music, the vocal performances are diverse and interesting.

Very enjoyable. It’s great to hear a band attempt something different with this kind of music.