Band:	Fallujah
Album:	Dreamless
Style:	Progressive death metal
Release date:	April 29, 2016
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Face Of Death
02. Adrenaline
03. The Void Alone [feat. Tori Letzler]
04. Abandon
05. Scar Queen
06. Dreamless
07. The Prodigal Son
08. Amber Gaze
09. Fidelio
10. Wind For Wings
11. Les Silences
12. Lacuna

The Flesh Prevails marked an extraordinary change in Fallujah. Soaring leaps and bounds beyond the confines of genres and all preconceived assessments of the band's potential, Fallujah created a true masterpiece that fused atmosphere, heaviness, and technicality seamlessly. Had Fallujah crafted a successor that mimicked The Flesh Prevails perfectly, no one would have complained, but The Flesh Prevails itself proved that this band has no desire to rest on its laurels. Dreamless diverges enough from its predecessor to demonstrate the band's further development, but nevertheless lives up to the impossibly high standard that Fallujah set back in 2014.

Though "Face Of Death" continues the thread of The Flesh Prevails without a second thought, dropping blistering tech death riffs over a spacey background, "Adrenaline" immediately strains the boundaries of the careful coalition of styles Fallujah employed on the last album. "Adrenaline" explores just how aggressive and schismatic Fallujah can be without abandoning its devotion to elegant atmospheres. By "The Void Alone" and "Abandon," Fallujah starts to incorporate different textures entirely, aided by the ethereal vocals of guest Tori Letzler, whose voice adds a great deal of feeling to the album's brutal brocade. Songs like "Amber Gaze" and "Wind For Wings" take the introspective, cosmic approach of The Flesh Prevails and push the concept even further down its logical path.

Fallujah possesses a unique instrumental liquidity that makes the shifts in tone and style seem utterly effortless; these musicians can craft exceedingly technical songs and heavy, unflinching avalanches without detracting from the serene mood. Every line of melody flows transcendently into the next, creating an unbroken seascape of shimmering sound that remains tranquil even amidst the body-slamming drums. Awash in superb lead guitar work, songs like "Scar Queen" call to mind Animals As Leaders and Oleg Izotov as much as The Faceless or Ne Obliviscaris. The title track represents, most literally of all these songs, the approach Fallujah has taken with these last few releases; "Dreamless" places a driving, pounding drum track behind an otherwise calm, meandering, half-ambient track that builds into something more recognizably metal.

Exceeding its predecessor by three songs and roughly 15 minutes, Dreamless contains much more content to digest than The Flesh Prevails. While this album is clearly indebted to The Flesh Prevails, Dreamless forges its own path rather than relying strictly on the blueprints established by Fallujah's previous material - not shifting radically in style, but creating enough distance to avoid cannibalism. Rarely have I had the chance to review an album as fantastic and instantly awe-inspiring as The Flesh Prevails, and I am glad to hear that Fallujah has gone above and beyond the call of duty in creating a successor.