By Jonathan Smith
Hailing from Los Angeles, Dreaming Dead’s Within One is a memorable and catchy debut album from the band. The music is a blackened mixture of death metal and thrash, and for the most part the combination works here. Elizabeth Elliott’s vocals are an exciting mixture of growls and snarls, but here the instruments do most of the talking. Not surprisingly, the guitars are front and center and keep things galloping along over the course of the eight tracks. Guitar solos are used sparingly and when they do appear they rarely end up sounding obligatory or overdone. The album sounds best when allowed to play all through the way through, though tracks like “Putrid Is The Sky” and “Shadows In The Dark” are definite stand-outs. The occasional sound samples are nothing original for this type of metal, but manage to avoid sounding too clichéd. Overall Within One is not always outstandingly original, but it’s great to hear an album that remains more or less consistently exciting throughout. A great sign of things to come.
http://www.myspace.com/dreamingdead
(Ibex Moon Records)
