Weakling - Dead as Dreams
As enigmatic as it is influential, Dead as Dreams is the sole release by American black metal provocateurs Weakling. Released in 2000 amidst swirling rumors such as the band burying the few vinyl copies and asking fans to find them, its unique blend of progressive rock, psychedelic rock, black metal, and sparse goth would become a landmark within the American black metal lexicon, inspiring artists such as Jeff Whitehead (Leviathan/Lurker of Chalice/Twilight), Wolves in the Throne Room, and Blake Judd (Nachtmystium/Twilight). Even Darkthrone’s Fenriz, the de-facto authority on all things extreme metal and crust punk, would reevaluate the album and later dub it a “masterpiece”.
Composed of five songs each over the ten minute mark, Dead as Dreams is not for the faint of heart or the weak willed. Each track is a panoramic landscape, undulating and ululating as they stretch and swirl to their inevitable conclusion. Opener “Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein”, for example, begins with the familiar synth epochs of Emperor and early Ulver before descending into the distinctly crustier furiosity of fellow Americans Judas Iscariot. Weakling never dwells, however, and morphs once again into the trailing dramatics of In the Court of the Crimson King.
The titular “Dead as Dreams” begins here as well. A swirling cacophony of sound, it borrows from the looping, gradual ascent of krautrock masters Popol Vuh and Amon Düül II to mutate the works of Kvist. Brief synthesizer passages further the ambiance with ephemeral and dramatic effect while drums pound in ritualistic tedium. Fundamentally groundbreaking, it is perhaps the earliest example of the cosmic black metal subgenre at most, and at the very least a clear influence on modern darlings Oranssi Pazuzu.
As “Dead as Dreams” ends, “This Entire Fucking Battlefield” begins. Perhaps Weakling’s most prominent work, the nearly fifteen minute track echoes the atonal ambiance of Blut Aus Nord’s seminal The Work Which Transforms God, albeit released three years earlier. Traversing a bleak Lovecraftian realm, the track is uncompromising as flurries of blast beats dance beneath ethereal synth and otherworldly vocals. It is emblematic of extreme music’s potential to communicate those fleeting, distant emotions that, while poignant, are difficult to express at best. Vast yet still razor sharp, it is an easily traceable throughline to the grandiloquent neo-crust of later bands such as Fall of Efrafa and Nux Vomica.
Casting aside the shackles of ambition, “No One Can Be Called a Man While He’ll Die” initially finds Weakling at their most singularly black metal. Possessed by the indignant second wave spirit, the band churns with the frozen howls and frigid riffs of Norway by-the-way of California. Weakling, however, cannot help themselves. The halfway mark finds the bands collapsing the prototypical tremolo riffs in favor of an asynchronous, polyrhythmic approach. As drums battle guitar for direction, vocals emerge straining. Simultaneously each push and pulls to create an eerie symphony where nothing ever quite lines up but settles neatly in the wreck nonetheless. While progressive rock can fall into the archetypal trappings of technicality for technicality’s sake, this is anything but. Weakling utilizes their impressive musical retinue to emphasize emotions and present the abstract.
Four tracks and an hour later, Dead as Dreams draws to a close with “Desasters in the Sun”. Intrepid and atmospheric, it begins at a glacial pace as sustained, single note synthesizer swells haunt unremitting dirges of sludgy black metal. From this murky amalgamation, Weakling soon launches into an unnerving black metal assault once again reminiscent of Jeff Whitehead and Blut Aus Nord’s later work. A discomforting dread hangs over “Desasters in the Sun” as Weakling employs not-at-the-time common flurries of atonal and microtonal riffing alongside flurries of effects pedals to conjure an otherworldly atmosphere. A burst of sustained ambiance further accentuates this technique as Weakling springs from it into the grandiose melodies of Dawn. Hauntingly beautiful and cathartically fleeting, Weakling never dwells. Rather, they dance between these myriad stylistic contributions to create a whole completely their own.
Long heralded as an exemplary USBM album within niche music forums and among black metal diehards, Dead as Dreams has only recently seen wider critical reappraisal. Pervasive and sprawling, the ideas Weakling conjures here have since gone on to become critical components of USBM’s, and black metal at large, musical identity. Key subgenres such as Cascadian black metal and neo crust specifically owe more to this one pioneering album than can properly be explored within the context of a singular retrospective. Dead as Dreams is the rare case of an album ahead of its time by an order of magnitudes, yet transcendental even amongst today’s standards. For any fan of extreme music it is, simply put, essential listening.
