Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal
Release Date: 19th November 2021
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom Metal, Dream-Doom.
FFO: Evoken, Anathema.
Review By: Martha Skourteli
What can you expect when 2 guys from death metal bands decide to make a new project? You get new death metal music! What kind of stereotypical answer is this?? Well, actually, you may get some doom metal.
Personally I’m not into death metal, so the names I read in the information about Dream Unending were unknown to me. Derrick Vella (bass/ guitars in Tomb Mold) and Justin DeTore (vocals/guitars in Innumerable Forms) get active in a new project that is about to present some fascinating forms of doom metal on the 19th of November in their debut full-length album titled Tide Turns Eternal.
Always sceptical as to what to expect, I was really hit by surprise and vibes of interest surely enough raised my eyebrow when the album started playing.
Tide Turns Eternal starts with Entrance, a 2-minute post rock intro, that was probably the exact opposite and definitely totally irrelevant to what I was thinking it would be. Actually this is a big part of the musical style of Dream Unending in their doom expression. They have taken crawling growls that you expect to find in funeral doom, Pink Floyd guitars (really, really beautifully composed) and a lot of post-rock essence, put them in a mixer and serve a very interesting cocktail of music that we can 100% categorize under doom metal, but it’s not necessarily what you hear often.
Throughout the whole album, there’s a feeling of eeriness that the vocals offer and the magic touch of the (mainly) Floyd-ish style of the guitars. Of course, having musicians that come from death metal bands, obviously you’ll get death metal moments (a good example is the end of In Cipher I Weep).
Tide Turns Eternal contains 7 songs that vary in duration from 2 to 11+ minutes. Don’t miss the 2-minute bridge Forgotten Farewell having one of many beautiful guitar solos that you will discover listening to Dream Unending and the closing title song that has a solo to die for. That last song also is the only one with some female vocals. Yes, that happens too on this album. My top choice from the surely not-to-ignore debut album of Dream Unending is The Needful, that has this very special, yet haunting melody.
I ain’t sure what led these guys to make this new project/band (I’m guessing the need to express calmer emotions, put aside maybe the anger and harshness of what they express in their main bands) but whatever the reason is for this decision/inspiration, the result is worthy of the effort they put in, and they should absolutely garner the attention of doom metal fans all over. Just check it, and I’m sure you’ll agree there are masses of potential here…
(4 / 5)
