ALBUM REVIEW: Dreadnought – The Endless


There is something mystifying about records that are able to mix beautiful melodies and soundscapes with the aggressive signature of a metal band. Dreadnought has been doing this for a decade now and has released its fifth collection entitled The Endless (Profound Lore). The mix of progressive song structures, jazz, and classical elements, and elegantly placed influences of black and doom metal really tie the band’s sound together. The album is deceptively forty-plus minutes long as listeners will surely lose themselves in the midst of this one.

The opening track, ‘Worlds Break’, gives a great overview of what to expect through this journey. The early sections are majestic, and beautiful, with clean vocals and light instrumentation, as if to ease the listener. Then the more aggressive side jumps in with harsh vocals, thunderous drumming, and distorted guitar riffs.

 

The album track, ‘The Endless’, is the shortest track, but continues forward with the progressive post-metal feel as the mellow side of Dreadnought builds upward and climaxes into a doom riff that feels like a punctuation mark at the end of a very important statement. The difference here is that the switch over from melodic to distorted seems more sudden than previous tracks, yet is still just as gratifying.

 


Then there is ‘Liminal Veil’ which is more of a roller coaster where even when the drums and guitars intensify, clean vocals remain for quite a few minutes. So as not to burn out the listener in this nine-minute adventure, the intensity tones back down for a short while, builds back up, and repeats this through many sections of the track.

I was very excited to see Dreadnought’s name appear in an email subject from our co-editor as I was blown away experiencing the Denver quartet live once and was needing more. To keep it simple, The Endless satiated me in what I was craving from this unique band. There are a lot of choices out there in the heavy music world, especially in current times, but it would be folly to pass up on what this group has to offer, even more so with this latest album being released.

 

Buy the album here: https://dreadnoughtdenver.bandcamp.com/album/the-endless

 

7 / 10

TIM LEDIN