Swollen with a rot-brewed breath fermented from the dregs of the long indignant, self-crucified ancients Adelaide, Australia-based death metal trio DREAMING DEATH speak the auld tongue(s) as they refill the unholy chalice of classics-era morbid thrashing muse with this debut mLP. As an introduction to their ‘old school’ minded intent crafted over the course of a couple years ‘Sinister Minister‘ is fastidious as it is freely stricken with possessed dramatism, riff-after-riff built from nostalgic thrash ’til death sounds via their own freshly cut wounds. It is an ideal introduction to their high level of decades forged skill and testament to finely honed taste in unhinged late 80’s/early 90’s extremism.

Dreaming Death formed circa 2022 between vocalist/guitarist Pahl Hodgson and vocalist/bassist Ross Duncan who’re best known for their work in the brilliant long-standing death metal band Beyond Mortal Dreams. From what I gather their efforts had built up its own offshoot as song ideas/riffs suited a different type of death metal project and as such they’d brought in drummer Matt “Skitz” Sanders (Diabolic Rites, ex-Damaged) to round out their ‘old school’ inspired efforts. The way I would generally categorize expectations here is again late 80’s thrash metal inspired death metal which plants itself in the early 90’s most of the time but show a fair deal of second-gen death metal DNA as the speed and brutality ramps on a few of these five songs.

What develops beyond the ‘Luck of the Corpse‘ feeling narrative strike into opener “With the Blessing of the Dead” is (again) a form of death metal which takes close notes on the intricacies borne of the Florida death metal scenery early on, particularly the speed/thrash metal birthed extremism associated with early Morbid Angel and Death as well as the more fiery, spastic strokes of Nocturnus and I suppose ‘Piece of Time‘. On “Corpse Flayer” we get some strong fanfare to start ’til the tuneful aspect of the piece comes from the riffs, germinally sourced motions of early Death and such whereas “The Coin and the Rune” takes on more of the Nocturnus-esque wiles that “With the Blessing of the Dead” had prompted, pressing the attack a la pre-‘Litany‘ Vader during their more thrashing period (see also: “Sinister Minister”). By using haunted keys to accentuate these tunefully set main riffs we find familiar yet not tunnel-visioned movement worthy of circa ’91-’93 death metal that hadn’t set aside its death-thrash muscle member (see also: that same era of Loudblast). In terms of communicating the the effect these referential points of the EP hit I’d say think somewhere in between the ‘Sothis‘ EP and Eternal Dirge (Germany) in terms of the listening experience, general intensity/frequency of their riffcraft and some willingness to find dramatic points to inlay keys and such for effect.

If you pay attention to guitar riffs and have developed specific taste in the few unique rhythmic languages prime guitarists have seeded death metal with over the last several decades you’ll appreciate the bevvy of ‘old school’ blasphemic death muse deployed on this EP. I don’t mean generic nods made to classics-era death and thrash metal but songs able to exert their flexion between forms, not unlike the brilliant touch of Sovereign (Norway) there is a love for the compositional tics and count-heavy topple of late 80’s thrash ’til early 90’s death metal sophistication in this trio’s work; I’d found the many sides of Dreaming Death‘s ouevre impressive from the start, parsing what I’d felt were a host of references and then appreciating that they were able to avoid the EP becoming a jagged patchwork of mis-matched ideas. Everything lines up without feeling dryly ripped from the past, though I will say some of my favorite songs on ‘Sinister Minister‘ were the ‘Altars of Madness‘-level grind and shred pieces (a la “Necrospell”) which again bear a mid-80’s extreme thrash action to the wrist, songs that’d felt the most complete and related to one another as the ~23 minute stretch of the EP chopped through.

If I’ve focused on the shape and the scent of a release this much up front it should at least signal no real falter in terms of musicianship here as all three of these folks are well-seasoned in the dark artes and present nothing short of the highest standard of performance. The authenticity of their ‘old school’ minded compositional hand(s) is without question as the lithe, quick-turning blaze of the rhythm guitar tone and the surrounding clatter of the drums feels exactly like a prime circa 1992 thrashing death metal album in motion at all times; Where I find this level of sub-genre music either thrives or struggles is in finding a balance between what is readably referential and their own critically unique stamp as there aren’t necessarily infinite worthy possibilities. In this sense I’d felt like Dreaming Death have communicated their core idea and their mastery of these thrashing death metal forms in one potent shot but they haven’t yet honed into just one gimmick or easily reduced idea, leaving the possibilities for the future fairly open. While I did see the intent to push this style into something well-rounded in oeuvre and extensive in its construction arisen withing their efforts overall the major appeal here is a good ole days sound, a classics minded meeting at a very high standard. A high recommendation.

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