Two great bands with two different yet very distinct sounds have teamed up for a split almost clocked in at 45 minutes between all 5 songs. Two songs from Dream Unending and three from Worm. This came as a surprise with an announcement in the last few days, and then today I received the promo so I couldn’t resist diving into this monster. And boy, it is exactly that. Just like this offering, I’m splitting up this review between the two bands. Here’s Part One. This bad boy is coming out on 20 Buck Spin THIS FRIDAY the 20th digitally! Physical copies are November 24th if you’re still into that sort of thing.
DREAM UNENDING
The band’s two songs on the offering are “So Many Chances” and “If Not Now When”. The band expanded on their progressive death/doom sound and moved a bit further away from their goth/post-punk inspiration here. Singing made a triumphant return, adding a nice solid layer to their ever expanding sound. The songs are 12:05 and 10:55 long. It’s definitely worth listening to obviously if you’re into this style. The guitar work is great and is slow as ever. It’s everything you expect and then some. Vintage DU and very ethereal. Highly recommended listen and super cool this was a stealth drop.
WORM
The 3 songs are titled “Ravenblood”, “Midwinter Tears” and “Sea Of Sorrow”. Another band on this split distancing itself from its initial death/doom sound (“Foreverglade” was my initiation into Worm and will always love it) and turn towards a black metal sound. It’s a testament to the band and its talents. They can do both styles well and this release has convinced me. I am starting to dig their black metal sound and the previous release “Bluenothing” was a solid start. I miss their old sound but I’m embracing the change they do it so well. It’s atmospheric and a little melodic with the help of Phil Tougas on guitar who’s enhancing this band a ton. I can’t honestly decide what part of the split I like more. Both bands seriously rip on “Starpath” and shouldn’t be ignored.
If you like one band more than the other, that’s cool. It happens and people have their tastes or preferences. These two are just another proof of how solid 20 Buck Spin is as a record label and two of the best bands on it. It was such a nice surprise to see and a quick release date. I miss those days of the 90’s when music just was released and didn’t need a few songs per album to release ahead of it’s day. This kind of reminded me of it. That said this is a great split and shouldn’t be ignored.
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