DREAMWELL – IN MY SADDEST DREAMS, I AM BESIDE YOU

(Andy Synn encourages you to give Dreamwell‘s new album – out this Friday – a chance)

Before you go any further, I encourage you all to go read what I wrote about Dreamwell‘s previous album, which was one of my favourite records of 2021.

Finished?

Well, now let me tell you why – as good as Modern Grotesque was – In My Saddest Dreams… is even better.

The eclectic, electrifying amalgam of Screamo, Hardcore, Post-Rock, Pop, Sludge, Metal, and Mathcore influences (and more besides) which makes up In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You is certainly a heady brew indeed, one which will probably prove as alienating to some as it is alluring to others (the shimmering, emo-drenched opening to “Good Reasons to Freeze to Death” – which eventually transforms into something not a million-miles away from An Autumn to Crippled Children at their best – for example, will likely prove to be an important litmus test for new listeners).

But, unlike a certain other band I could mention (but won’t), whose madcap multi-genre mash-up reeks of a desperate need to be liked by as many people as possible, it’s obvious that Dreamwell don’t really care about the approval of anyone else outside of the band. It’s all about creating what feels right, in the moment, and expressing themselves in the most honest and authentic way possible.

To clarify that a little further, it’s not that Dreamwell are afraid of being liked or popular, by any means… it’s more that they understand that if you’re going to create something meaningful, something which truly speaks from the heart, you have to be willing to take a few risks, such as how “Lord Have MRSA On My Soul” combines shamelessly poppy melody with the sort of chaotic viciousness reminiscent of Vanity-era Eighteen Visions, or the way in which “All Towers Drawn in the Equatorial Room” doubles, then triples, down on the sludgy discordance, getting uglier and more unpleasant as the song goes on.

And while, obviously, the majority of our readers will probably be more interested in the harsher, heavier side of the band – the caustic vocals and jagged riffs of “Obelisk of Hands”, for example, have more than a hint of Zao (circa-The Funeral of God) to them, for example – it’s really the juxtaposition of contrasting, competing emotions and sonic sensations (such as the seamless blend of frailty and fury, tension and tenderness, which underpins the outstanding “It Will Hurt, And You Won’t Get to be Surprised”) which makes In My Saddest Dreams… such a challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, listen.

I’ll grant you that the second half of the album is a little less consistent than the first – both “Reverberations…” and “Body Fountain” (which, it must be noted, sit on pretty much opposite ends of the sonic spectrum) are solid tracks which, nevertheless, don’t quite ascend to the same heights as the rest of the record – but the insistent and unpredictable “Blighttown Type Beat”, the hauntingly atmospheric “I Dream’t of a Room of Clouds” (which features a career-defining performance from vocalist Keziah Staska) and artfully proggy closer “Rue de Noms” are easily, easily, among the best songs the band have ever written.

In My Saddest Dreams… definitely won’t be for everyone – it’s too wilfully eccentric, too wildly unconventional, to have that sort of mainstream mass-appeal – but, to put things in perspective a little more, I don’t think I’ve encountered an album in the greater Hardcore scene as inventive in its intensity, as uncompromising in its creativity, as this one since Poison the Well called it a day.

Which, if you know anything, is some of the highest praise I can possibly offer.