This is some serious art-house shit right here. This is not for your everyday run-of-the-mill metal fan. This is some downright avant-garde intellectual metal type shit. You want clean female vocals. Check. You want demonic female screeching vocals. Check. You want layers of dark atmospheric guitar and bass work. Check. You want a drummer that also plays sax and a guitarist that rocks out on the flute. Check and check!
Yeah, Dreadnought is an interesting beast and makes it feel as though Colorado’s legalization of weed is really starting to pay off in the creative arts scene. This is a difficult album to grasp. It doesn’t really go for hooks or catchy melodies. No gang choruses like “Balls To The Wall!!” here. Rather, the album challenges the listener to wade into the deep end of an emotional and bleak slab of metal. It isn’t a quick fix of feel good metal. This is like a well-worn copy of a novel that you curl up with on a rainy afternoon.
I wish I could say that I’m fully on board with this one, because it has a lot going on. Unfortunately, I’m writing this review after only a couple of listens. This is one of those albums that I might have to write up a new review a year or so down the road once I can fully let it absorb. This kind of happened with Dreadnought’s last album, A Wake In Sacred Waves. The new album is kind of a continuation of the sounds and feelings conveyed on its predecessor and that album took me a while to warm up to as well. If you are of the more adventurous type metal fan, check this one out and give it some time to breathe. I have a feeling the longer it airs, the better it’s going to seem.
3.5 flip flops out of 5