Dawnwalker - The Between - review
Dawnwalker - The Between - review
Tracklist
01. The Between02. Remember Death [bonus]
A review by
musclassia November 19, 2025
Dawnwalker, the London musical collective led by Mark Norgate, have explored a range of sounds across their recent output since I discovered them in 2020, with certain releases exhibiting a kinship with major names in the modern British progressive rock scene, while others owed more to post-metal and incorporated harsher sounds. The Between brings together these sounds alongside new age influences in a remarkable 32-minute single-song odyssey brought to life by a 12-piece line-up comprising guitarists, bass, piano, synths, saxophone, percussionists and four vocalists.
Norgate describes the song as being intentionally ‘through-composed’: written in order from beginning to end, naturally evolving as it discovers each new phase it moves into. It was as much a journey of self-discovery to write as it is to listen to, and the chimes and ambience bookending the song, along with the intermittent spoken word narration by Amber Marie, aim to truly capture that guided meditation experience as a framing device for the explorative prog rock/metal contained within. Once instrumentation and singing first emerges, the initial vibes are akin to the naturalist prog of Anathema and Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson, although more metallic instrumentation soon arrives.
“The Between” straddles the boundaries between progressive rock and metal, but the metal (aside from a frantic 20-second flurry of cacophonic percussion and saxophone around the 7-minute mark) is not of an extreme variety. That said, on top of the clean-sung male and female vocals from Norgate and Sofia Sourianou, there are also extreme vocals (growls, shrieks, and rasps) encountered on the album. The final vocalist credited is Sacred Son bandleader Dane Cross, who also performed bass and vocals in Dawnwalker from Human Ruins to House Of Sand. From reading the lyrics, the portion of the song building to that aforementioned extreme outburst seems to be grappling with the fear and ugliness of death, growls and shrieks trading off with almost gospel-ish clean vocal refrains, which are partially reprised after the cacophonic assault as the track winds down the intensity.
These opening 10 minutes or so of “The Between” are an important foundational part of the journey, but for me the song really soars to another level after this point through the following movements. A chilled passage around the 10-minute mark gives the saxophone a chance to take the lead role, building up to a moving saxophone solo that precedes a final sequence of doomy despair featuring the growls and shrieks; after this point, the extreme vocals largely disappear (bar one final notable occurrence), and the song moves back towards those British emotional prog rock influences. The male/female vocal harmonies, lush vocal melodies and piano arrangements in the following few minutes really give me Anathema and Pure Reason Revolution vibes in the best way.
There is really too much within this song to break down everything, but the new age section around 16 minutes is notable for properly returning to the guided meditation theme, with chanting vocals and rattle percussion. Another really remarkable section comes in at around 23 minutes; following another lush Pure Reason Revolution-style harmonized passage, the song spreads across a grandiose expanse of slow sustained chords that serve as the foundation of some incredibly arranged overlapping vocal motifs trading off with one another, with the shrieks eventually returning in this passage to add to the interplay. The compositional skills on display here are remarkable, and truly work to capture the spiritual ambitions of the band.
The song eventually works towards a climax, with a passage very much reminiscent of Weather Systems-era Anathema featuring passionate vocals and intricate layering that build towards a great guitar solo, the last moment of real swelling volume before the song marks its slow, gradual winding down to silence, accompanied along the way by melancholic piano and shamanic vocal cries. As “The Between” ends with the same chimes as it began, a sense of completeness and resolution is reached.
On Bandcamp, and presumably on physical releases, The Between comes with a second song, “Remember Death”, which is labeled as a bonus track despite being hefty in its own right at 20 minutes. However, I can see why one would want to separate it from “The Between”; it is almost entirely opposite in its approach, being a very understated, stripped-down and gradual post-rock guitar backdrop with a constant accompanying spoken word rumination on the futility of life and merits of meditation in reaching acceptance. Compared with how sprawling, fast-evolving and truly stirring “The Between” is, “Remember Death” is a whole lot of nothing, and not something I would recommend anyone to seek out.
However, taken as solely the 32-minute title track, The Between is one of the most extraordinary releases of 2025, and a true achievement in progressive music. I’ve heard the three albums from Dawnwalker prior to this release, and generally liked each of them, but none have really lived in my memory; in contrast, The Between is an album I expect to be thinking about for a long time to come.
Written on 19.11.2025 by
Written on 19.11.2025 by
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Amazing ! Truly inspiring music! Can’t believe all these “unknown” bands are putting out some of the best music of 2025
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