Dreams After Death: Embraced by the Light

I absolutely love funeral doom music. It makes me happy to be alive within the past decades to see this genre come to fruition beginning with bands like Skepticism, Thergothon, and Funeral beginning in the mid 90’s to today bands like Worship, Shape of Despair, Depressed Mode, Esoteric, Colosseum, and so many others that paved the way for such emotive music. I can see the next chapter of funeral doom and that is Dreams After Death. Headed solely by András Illés hailing from Budapest in Hungary, he has crafted a fine debut of beauty and darkness. Dreams After Death has raised the bar towards the funeral doom genre with amazing musicianship and his vision of melodic grave ladened fields.

The 6 song album, “Embraced by the Light,” takes from many influences, I hear Shape of Despair and Colosseum distinctly along with dischordant, ambience resonanting pure chaos within the simplicity of death. Just as creation, “Genesis” sends you upon your journey within the mind of Andras and this solo artist guides you through the winding trails as if in the end of your life, it has only just begun. On through the “Funeral” and with the “Meeting with the Ancestors”, your soul has only crossed the halfway point. With emotive twists and turns, the soul has pure elation with this seemingly uncharactized path. This writer/composer has seen this pat, and is a great guide into “Endless Time”. Finishing off the experience, Andras gives us trancendance with “From Time Imemmorial” and lastly into the void with “Outer Space”.

Many of these bands, like Dreams After Death, must be experienced. I will say this album is an epic masterpiece on his first known endeavor. Dreams After Death has such depth, precision, and well written pieces that would rival some of the pioneers of this genre. This album is a MUST in anyone’s library.