Band:	Dreamless Veil
Album:	Every Limb Of The Flood
Style:	Blackened death metal
Release date:	September 20, 2024
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. Dim Golden Rave
02. A Generation Of Eyes
03. Saturnism
04. The Stirring Of Flies
05. Cyanide Mine
06. Every Limb Of The Flood
07. Glossolalia
08. Dreamless

A fresh talented super group emerges from beyond the Dreamless Veil of blackened death; let's see what this trio is made of.

Recently formed by the star-studded trio of vocalist Mike Paparo (Inter Arma/Artificial Brain), guitarist Dan Gargiulo (Artificial Brain/Revocation), and drummer David Haley (Psycroptic/Werewolves) comes an exciting new prospect in the form of Dreamless Veil. These 3 participating musicians have proven capable of crafting some top-quality death metal through their respective bands, but now they come together as a trio to present their full-length debut Every Limb Of The Flood. This combination on paper sounds like a winning formula, so you'd expect some of the highest quality dissonant blackened death of 2024, am I right?

The album's concept is based on a twisted, distorted, and horrifying reality that expresses one's deepest, darkest, inner thoughts and emotions, and let me tell you, the music behind these 8 tracks definitely lives up to this concept. "Dim Golden Rave" starts the album off in an unsettling yet strangely satisfying fashion; the instrumentation is like a restless whirlwind in structure, equal measures of black and death metal, mostly chaotic and dissonant, but clearly with method behind its horrific madness as glimpses of melody often emerge. The song begins at middling tempo, and in a more blackened fashion as opposed to death to start with, but there are sudden changes in pace as the rhythm becomes more technical and chaotic. One of the most interesting elements for me is the vocals; they seem to growl and echo sinisterly in the background behind the instrumentation, as if a demonic being is reaching out from deep within subterranean depths.

A style of equal portions black and death, dissonance and melody begins to emerge as the album continues to unravel its deeply unsettling musical concept, where you'll go through a whole heap of emotional instabilities. Of all the emotions you'll experience, it's most likely you'll encounter a sense of uncontrollable terror above all; "Cyanide Mine", for instance, sounds like something straight out of a twisted sci-fi horror, the distorted interweaving riffs and sharp blackened tone delivering such a menacing sound, but it's upon hearing the convincingly demonic, savage growls that you'll likely be trembling in fear. As I said, the structure isn't just an onslaught of uncontrollable dissonance; the rhythm has a sense of groove when you very least expect it, whilst the interweaving guitars do contain certain melodic features amongst the blackened dissonant tremolos. The drumming also goes from furious, relentless blast beats to stylistic patterns. But don't be fooled into thinking this is something you can get grooving too; if it's headbanging action you want, you won't be nodding along here, but rather headbutting a wall if you're prone to succumbing to this madness.

Every Limb Of The Flood is a somewhat uncomfortable listening experience, but it sure as hell is a rewarding one; it's relatively short too, so getting through this in one sitting is an easy enough task. Yes, it's undeniably evil, but there's an abundance of memorable melodies and hooks for you to at least enjoy. The technical skills of this trio are simply remarkable, each musician coming into their own, and every element is a driving force behind the songwriting. Living up to the masters of dissonance and blackened death (Ulcerate, Deathspell Omega, and Gorguts in particular) is certainly not easy, but the highly talented trio of the Dreamless Veil are masters of this craft; they definitely seem to know a thing or two about putting sheer terror into the souls of their listeners. They're well and truly on the path to becoming a force in blackened death, and after releasing one of the highest quality blackened death albums of 2024 in Every Limb Of The Flood, I for one am looking forward to hearing more from them in the future.