I remember first date with my wife. We talked music and she was glorifying Tiamat's "Wildhoney". She likes that album even though she doesn't listen to metal at all. It seem it wasn't me who picked her up, but it was me who was picked. She doesn't like metal for number of reasons. Boring drums, double kick everywhere. Most often boring melodies or even lack of them, or if there are melodies - overepicness. Chaos, noise, funny clothes. Can't not agree. But there is few reasons why I fell in love in metal music as a teenager and why I still like it. Good melodies, wall of riffs, finger braking solos. Why can't we have them all in just one project? Well, we can.
I had to double check it, but I haven't review a single polish album here. I'm polish, even though I live in Ireland for six years now I try to be on date with what is happening on polish scene. Batushka or Mgła made their way to the top of the ladder quickly with brilliant albums they made. Distant Dream somehow isn't that famous yet.
Marcin Majrowski comes from Gdańsk, city in north of Poland, on the coast, known mostly for shipyard uprising 1980 which was a start of the end of communism in Poland and finally the end of Soviet Union. Marcin is the only person behind Distant Dream project. He used to play with death metal band Devil's Note and then with Feather Child. Second band gave him desire of creating his own music, based on wide open landscapes and atmosphere. First project's LP, titled "It all Starts from Pieces", was released last year, and second "Your Own Story" just couple of months ago.
"It all Starts from Pieces" starts with a lovely guitar solo following by juicy riff. And this is what we gonna have for the next 40 minutes. Great riffs, beautiful melodies and amazing solos. Some tracks drift more into prog rock style, while other are post metal masterpieces. Trying to capture just one inspiration here is pointless, this music is everything we can put between rock and metal. Marcin wrote progressive stuff in the classic Floyd's meaning, season it with his death metal roots and distilled to get synthesised core of everything which is best in both genres. But the most amazing thing is how even is this album, how well balanced. All young prog metal bands think if you speed up tempo, and play absolutely every solo with tapping technique you gonna have a prog metal album. No! Marcin can play incredibly fast and he play really braking finger solos but he knows where to slow and calm down. Great melodies feeling with extremely heavy riffs. Very tasty stuff! LP was pressed in a black vinyl. Very neat press to be honest, heavy disc is cut very precise and mastering for this format was well made too. But the most breathtaking part of the release is its cover. Bridge and endless space on the sky. That's what we get here. Precision and space.
"Your Own Story" is continuation of a same path Marcin took with first album but somehow it gets even more ambient, more calm and spacious. Don't get me wrong. He still knows how to play ground shaking guitar riffs. He still write beautiful melodies and make teenage guitarists cry into pillow with his solos. But I can feel more confidence behind this material, like he knows his idea of music works and he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. Seven strings guitar brings so much body into this sounds! The feeling of balance is same. No fault here either. Another great album but it is definitely a next step in this journey. Second LP has similar style cover but as the music again is even more dreamy and unreal. High quality matt paper, super neat release. Records itself is green with white splatters and it is a beauty indeed, sounds great too. Absolutely amazing album! Must have for all post metal fans.
Marcin started working to gather some musicians and make live act group and that will be just great! Can't wait what this will bring. Astonishing concerts and new material?
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