Dead As Dreams

About

Weakling's debut album; Dead As Dreams would be released somewhere in 1999. The same year, Weakling, as a band, disbanded. But Dead As Dreams wouldn't be released conventionally as an album. This version of Dead As Dreams was originally released independently by the band as a demo CD and cassette before being released and distributed by the tUMULt label somewhere in 2000. Dead As Dreams was recorded in December 1998, a year after they'd formed and a year before disbandment. Recorded at Louder Studios in the San Francisco area, Dead As Dreams consists of only five tracks and has a total runtime of an hour and sixteen minutes, with each track expanding past the ten-minute mark. Dead As Dreams mixes a sound of progressive metal, atmospheric black metal, depressive black metal and doom metal so well that each that each musical influence on this album blends perfectly and as a result gives way to this cacophony sound collage that is apocalyptic as well as dystopian in nature. With each track standing out by itself sonically and technically, each one of these tracks progresses perfectly alongside the other until the end. While Weakling might've delivered short on their discography and their three-year run, as a band, Weakling has garnered a massive cult-following over the years as having one of the best USBM albums out there in the black metal space. Dead As Dreams' album cover is a painting by Francisco de Goya called "Buen viaje" ("Good journey" in Spanish). Under the tUMULt label, Dead As Dreams would receive a CD release in 2000 and a limited run of 500 units on vinyl. In later years, Dead As Dreams received a limited-edition, hand-made cassette release of only 300 copies, as well as three CD represses by tUMULt, though it's unclear when these were released. Also, many cassette bootlegs by admirers appeared. Each release fetched well over $35, up to thousands of dollars.

via Last.fm