(Andy Synn tries to separate the certain from the uncertain once and for all with the new Dream Unending album)
It’s well-documented by this point that I’m not a big fan of the often unnecessary and frequently misleading excesses of the online hype machine.
Not only can it do more harm than good by setting an unreasonably high standard (especially for new bands being presented as “the next big thing” before they’re ready) but it also makes it hard to have a measured and nuanced conversation about the merits, or mis-steps, of a piece of work when people are conditioned to see everything on a binary, black and white scale of either “best thing ever” or “complete and utter garbage fire.”
Case in point, the debut album from Justin DeTore and Derrick Vella, aka Dream Unending, was initially presented as a paradigm-shift in the medium of Death Doom, despite (in my opinion, at least) how obviously and heavily indebted it was to the earliest works of the seminal “Peaceville Three”… but any suggestion that it might not be the genre-defying game-changer it was presented as received a very hostile response.
And, to be clear, it’s not a bad record (even if 2022’s Song of Salvation, which you can read more about here, was significantly stronger) it’s just a prime example of an album where the initial hype represented a clear attempt to set and control the narrative in a way that wasn’t fully reflected by the release itself.
But, for whatever reason – maybe it’s because they’re no longer the hip, new thing, or maybe it’s just because the band’s third album is a more daring, harder to definte piece of work – there doesn’t seem to have been quite as much hype about Certain Uncertainties… which actually leaves a lot more room for me to talk about it.
Make no mistake, Certain Uncertainties is easily the strangest, if not the strongest, work of the band’s career so far – likely to alienate as many of their existing fans with its free-flowing passages of jazzy improvisation (with the moody, meandering mid-section of “Strained Sincerity” potentially being the biggest test of just how long their audience are willing to indulge the duo’s proggy, Pink Floyd-ian proclivities) as it is earn them new followers drawn in by the gorgeous, eye-catching artwork – and deserves to be celebrated for that fact alone.
After all, in a world where the pressure to conform, to play it safe and follow trends seems to be increasing day by day – while the opportunities for success, and the availability of support for one’s artistic endeavours continue to dwindle – it’s a brave (some might say foolish) band who chooses the path less travelled and attempts to do something different at the risk of losing what they already have.
Thankfully, while Certain Uncertainties is far from perfect… parts of “I Carry Your Burden” in particular just seem to drag on interminably… it still possesses a unique magnetism, largely due to the continually enchanting, yet wilfully unorthodox, melodicisms of Vella’s fluid guitar work, which frequently ventures into realms of tones and textures well outside of normal Death/Doom territory (with both outstanding opener “Blinding Allure” and epic, eleven minute closer “Causal” exemplifying how these lambent leads and cascading melodies, guided and conducted by DeTore’s restrained percussive patterns, form the real backbone of the music).
What this means, in practice, is that the more metallic elements of the album – which, it must be noted, are pretty much entirely absent from the laid-back instrumental strains of both “Certain Uncertainties” and “Rubato” (the former of which is particularly pleasing to the ear, though I’ve also developed a real fondness for the smoky swing of the latter over time) – seem to take much more of a back-seat this time around, playing an obvious second fiddle to the band’s real interest in exploring the jazzier, proggier side of their sound.
And this, to be clear, isn’t necessarily a bad thing… after all, as someone who has been a little critical of the whole “hype vs substance” aspect of the band’s career thus far I’m all for them focussing on pursuing their passions rather than trying to live up to the industry’s expectations, especially if it just so happens to take them further into the realms of Doom-Jazz a la The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and The Lovecraft Sextet (who also just released a new album, which I really need to check out).
Sure, we can’t really be certain where Dream Unending will go next – I’m not even sure the band themselves know – but that uncertainty is ultimately part of the allure, and wherever they do finally end up (and I, for one, would be happy for them to go even weirder and jazzier next time around) we can only hope that the end result is just as fascinating, albeit perhaps slightly less flawed, as Certain Uncertainties.