Weakling – Dead As Dreams

Tracklist

Credits

• Recorded By – Tim Green
  

Notes

500 copies pressed.

Recorded December 1998 at Louder Studios.

WEAKLING review from SONICDEATH.CO.UK

As initially dubious as I was of a Black Metal outfit from California, it seems that sun-drenched beaches and silicone-enhanced women are a far more effective muse in inspiring the creation of truly oppressive and hateful soundscapes than the frostbitten wastelands of the wintry North. You'll have to excuse me if I lapse into detail, because an album of this quality genuinely requires some close scrutiny to fully justify its majesty.

The vocals are oft' Burzumic; distant howls of inhuman vitriol vying for supremacy with the turbulence of the instruments, the guitars waspish and sometimes ethereal, and the drumming warlike in execution. However, rather than pay homage to their roots in Norwegian Black Metal, Weakling have constructed a work that can be viewed as somewhat progressive and avant-garde, without sounding at all futuristic or post anything. How? First of all, it's actually very spiritual in places, and sometimes very epic, in a spacey, film-score sort of way (heard the song 'Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse' from the new Dimmu Borgir album? Along those lines, but done with guitars and a single, barely audible keyboard instead of a full-blown orchestra), so basically 'Dead As Dreams' enforces the stringent guidelines of 'true' Black Metal, yet still manages to carve out its own vast space in the scene, with its own grand vision intact. Essentially, this album does for Black Metal what Vital Remains' 'Dechristianize' does for Death Metal, and that is to take the base virtues of a rigid framework to their logical conclusions with impeccable songwriting and studied musicianship.

What begins as a Mayhem riff explodes into being with a peculiar tinkling synth effect decorating a truly vicious riff. At once you are presented with inescapable images of war and chaos that are somehow more refined, more adult than those of your run-of-the-mill, by the numbers tin-can Black Metal band. The titular second track, clocking in at a decidedly epic 20 minutes, introduces dismal melody to the proceedings, beginning with a lengthy instrumental interlude sounding like an Opeth soundcheck and then resuming the warlike atmosphere. The epic qualities of a beautifully droning riff are expounded as they are carried on past their conclusion with a minimalistic keyboard line, then expunged as barbaric drums and raging guitars once again take control. Rather than wrap up the song with yet more of the melodic/blast transition, an almost tribal drum beat and a repetitive riff crest the wave of a monothilic drone. This formula is continued and perverted for the remainder of the album, with more variation and invention in each song than most Black Metal bands could lay claim to in their entire careers.

I could draw parallels to both Fleurety's bizarre 'Mid Tid Skal Komme' and Zyklon B's 'Blood Must Be Shed' simultaneously, although being not entirely au fait with the sprawling underground of todays Black Metal scene, I am sure that there are far more appropriate comparisons to be made. Still, within my comparatively limited sphere of experience, 'Dead As Dreams' is Black Metal's apex, and its atmosphere and execution are as sharp as that analogy implies.