Dimwind – The Futility of Breathing
Dimwind – The Futility of Breathing
Trepanation Recordings
Release Date: 21/04/23
Running Time: 45:47
Review by Dark Juan
9/10
It has been said that Dark Juan is something of a polymath, being as I have variously been a trucker, care worker, warehouseman, cult leader, parent, musician and writer. Among many other things, such as a psychopomp and sexual tyrannosaurus. One of the things Dark Juan is not, however, is computer savvy. I can do basic shit but the simplest of actual professional tasks is beyond me, as proven by the morning I have spent attempting to connect the new email client Simon and Beth (editors extraordinaires) have set up to my existing accounts. I simply cannot do it and this microprocessor-ed bastard that I am currently typing on has been threatened with death via explosion, road traffic accident, sledgehammer and being urinated on by humans and dogs, to no avail. This has put your faithful correspondent in a foul mood. Mrs Dark Juan has decamped to the back yard to escape my wrath and I have given up trying to be even vaguely professional in the hope that SOMEONE ELSE FUCKING SORTS IT OUT FOR ME. Give me ornery teenagers with violent tendencies to wrangle any day of the week…
In a somewhat cranky mood then, I have fired up the puissant Platter of Splatter™ and placed upon it a disc by a Swedish Post-Metal instrumental duo named Dimwind to hopefully ease my incandescent fury at all things silicon-based and the fact that Ever-Metal.com is (rightly) demanding some professionalism from me. Let us see whether the beast inside is mollified by some decent tuneage, or whether Dimwind are going to exacerbate my fury. My (lack of) typing skills are already firing up the rage furnace because I keep typing words incorrectly.
First impression of “The Futility of Breathing” is an underlying and instantly felt melancholy that is somehow conveyed through the opening chords of ‘First Light Never Stays’ and is maintained throughout the whole album, even through the more vigorous tracks such as ‘Once A Lushful Green’ where the music canters along quite nicely (until halfway through anyway, where it returns to slow and despondent and sparse). Dark Juan rarely reads the EPK that comes with albums before at least listening to them once so as not to prejudice the listening experience. After one listen of the whole of “The Futility of Breathing”, I took to the press kit and was entirely unsurprised to discover that string-slinger and keyboard man Andreas Hansen’s wife died unexpectedly and that this album is his way of coping with that bereavement. The music more than adequately conveys the ineffable sadness that follows loss and yet also manages to be transformative – like those transcendent moments when you rise above the grey and into the sunlight of realising that not everything is vague and featureless and you can live and breathe again.
The band play instrumental Post-Metal with a strong Progressive edge – there are time changes and unusual time signatures and some impressively complex guitar work that is based upon multi-tracked layers of dense and complicated riffing. ‘Withering Unseen’ is the best example of this with at least three time changes and a minimum of four key riffs that the tune switches between to become a multifaceted beast of grief and loss. The drumming of Jonas Eriksson is top notch too, with a craftsman’s precision from opening snare hit to closing cymbal crash. Both musos hit every mark they possibly can for deeply moving compositions that are as elegant and sinuous as they are heavy and emotionally affecting. The whole album is a deep-set exploration of the nature of grief and its long, drawn out nature after losing a loved one.
Musically, Dimwind channels the complexities of Progressive music and welds them to the compositional skills of the likes of Meshuggah and Tool and then underpin them with the melancholy and bleakness of Goth. The resulting music transcends boundaries and will find as much love in the Gothic community as it will in the Metal one. Everything is at expert level on this recording. It is never boring even though Dimwind favours a longer track (9:06 for the longest tune on the record), there is constant interest and tiny flourishes that peek out from behind the music and the production of the album is absolutely spot-on. The drumming is spectacular and very complicated but well-produced and easy to hear and the snare drum (a particular obsession of Dark Juan ever since Metallica decided not to bother with one on “St. Anger”. Fucking travesty!) is resonant and penetrating throughout.
All in all, then, a pretty excellent album. ‘A Feeble Frame Remains’ alters the dynamics from genius level Progressive Metal to some excellent Drone/Shoegaze-y introspection and the fact that the record is able to chart emotional highs and lows without some dweeb caterwauling all over it and lamenting about not getting drunk/laid/stoned is really a massive point in its favour. Dark Juan is something of a fan, although now Dark Juan is just miserable rather than furious. It’s always a gift when music makes you FEEL, rather than just being out and out rage at maximum volume.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System (Det patenterade Dark Juan-systemet för blodstänk för alla våra svenska vänner som vill skratta åt begränsningarna i Google Translate…) awards Dimwind 9/10 for a brilliantly executed, emotionally stirring album that tugs at heartstrings in a way that is virtually unprecedented in Heavy and Extreme music.
TRACKLISTING:
01. First Light Never Stays
02. Days Subside Ablaze
03. Once A Lushful Green
04. Withering Unseen
05. The Growing Shadow Gains
06. A Feeble Frame Remains
LINE-UP:
Andreas Hansen – Strings, keys
Jonas Eriksson – Drums
LINKS:
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