Fallujah - Dreamless

I spoke pretty highly of Fallujah's preceding album The Flesh Prevails as I and most everyone who heard it agreed it was an excellent record dragged down by an anchor of a bad production job, clocking in at an unfortunate DR score of 3 (allegedly the vinyl mix is of largely better sonic quality). It's been two years since then and we're now presented with the group's latest work, Dreamless.

First things first: yes, the production is definitely better on this disc than the standard mix of The Flesh Prevails. No, it still isn't very good as it only raises the DR needle up to a 5, but it's certainly a step in the right direction -- and to be honest, I never really had a huge problem with the production of the previous record as the brick-walled solidity of the thing seemed to fit with the blast-beat laden tech death angle they seemed to be going for: a dark, moonlight glacial shelf of an album. It doesn't excuse all of it, but I could get past it to pick up what the band was putting down, and in any case Dreamless sounds almost like the lost second disc of the double album it sounds like it was supposed to be a part of with The Flesh Prevails, so expect a similar sonic palette here: Andrew Baird's drumming is still top-notch and the guitar duo of Andrew Carstairs and Brian James put in some excellent work, particularly on the standout tracks "The Void Alone" and "Scar Queen". Fallujah continues to experiment with a blend of progressive death metal and ambient trance-scapes, with Dreamless featuring a much greater emphasis on the softer, more ethereal aspects of their sound than previous albums ever have, to mixed results. Lori Tezler contributes some suitably airy vocals to several tracks to nice effect a la Roniit Alkayam's work on the previous album, but the guitar playing here really deserves mention, as the first half of Dreamless in particular features some seriously spectacular fretwork.

The disc is roughly divided into two halves, with the front half containing several heavier pieces that gradually decline in intensity as things progress, developing into a home stretch of songs that explore the group's interest in trance and ambience even further than previous tracks like "Alone With You". These deeper forays into electronica strike me as less self-assured and well-constructed as those found on their previous record - "Fidelio" and "Les Silences" stick out from the rest of the compositions in a major way, and while I appreciate a break from the breakneck speed of the other tracks, these detours just don't mesh with the rest of Dreamless, nor do the one-off inclusion of clean vocals from Alex Hofmann on "Wind for Wings". Happily, though, a couple of terrific barn-stormers round out the package in the title track and album closer "Lacuna". While the less metallic elements of their sound needs some refinement, Fallujah is firing on all cylinders with the remainder of Dreamless: the good far outweighs the bad here.

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