DREAMARCHER - The Bond (LP)

Dreamarcher is a blackened progressive metal band based in Oslo, Norway. With their extensive collective of melodic and screaming vocals, and their mixture of hard-hittingdarkness and dreamy ambience, they skillfully balance the abrasive with beauty and sensitivity. 

The band was founded by Kim Christer Hylland and Ruben Aksnes in 2015 with a concept of creating a project that would embrace their idea of songwriting. The name Dreamarcher set the stage for their music; blending the romanticized, dreamy, ambient and beautiful with the dark, industrial, concrete and hideous. Inspired by their hometown Odda, located at the innermost point of the Hardangerfjord of Norway, their music, artwork and lyrics reflects a small industrial town surrounded by majestic nature, fjords and glaciers.

Dreamarcher released their self-titled debut album in 2016; harvesting great reviews and attention both for the record and the mind-blowing music video for the song Shadows. Since then, they have toured Europe with Black Metal pioneers Kampfar, played at big Norwegian festivals like Pstereo, Tons of Rock, Slottsfjellfestivalen, by:Larm and Inferno Metal Festival. This was followed by the live recorded EP “Harding”, which previewed the bigger concept of their next release. 2019 kicked off with a European tour supporting the legendary fathers of Blackjazz, Shining, and now it is time for a new album.

The band on the new album: “The Bond is about the struggle for life, and dominance between the human society and nature. We are living at nature’s mercy, but in our modern society we easily forget where we came from. We depend upon the Earth, and the Earth upon us. We use its resources to create life, but in doing so, we also destroy life. We have been blessed to grow up in one of the world’s richest countries, in a region that might also be one of the most beautiful places on earth, Hardanger, Norway. But we have seen many of our most spectacular waterfalls and glaciers disappear year by year, as well as floods and avalanches destroying everything in their path. Though it’s great to live in a country with an abundance of resources, it can also create a sense of loneliness and depression. The lyrics are based upon true stories from the Hardanger region, including tales of dementia, abandonment, societal persecution of religious moral and the mystical disappearance of factory director Albert Petersson -all encapsulated by the overwhelming theme of modern society’s impact upon our surroundings.”

The record was recorded in Ocean Sound Recordings on the West coast of Norway, with Ashley Stubbert as producer, engineer and mix. Ashley Stubbert about the recording: “The soundscapes for “The Bond” came from both the personal goals to expand on what we did with “Dreamarcher”, our first collaboration together, and the challenge of telling both lyrically and musically the story of the human struggle from the true histories documented by Jan Gravdal, among others. sounds and arrangements of each song were carefully put together with the concepts of the lyrics. Nature versus man, man versus nature, man versus man. It´s definitely a concept record, and I find the end result very inspiring. Life is complex, jarring and beautiful. For me this record represents humanity at its best and worst."

Tracklist:

1. Coal
2. Black Water
3. A Fail Of Design
4. From which we came
5. Folgefonna I
6. The Body
7. Dominance
8. Folgefonna II