Review: Gangrened ‘Ambient Doom Dream’
Theatrical is how I would describe Ambient Doom Dream by Gangrened, the new drumless instrumental combining the unique masterminds of Jon Imbernon of Gangrened and Olli Wikström of Qstaw. As a big fan of both members previous work, I was intrigued to hear what they could produce together. Ambient Doom Dream takes their skills and creativity to new heights and conjured an album worthy of the silver screen.
The opening darkness of Intro is aptly named. As stated above, I could easily see this as providing the soundscape for an eerie apocalyptic movie and I still get chills at the ‘siren’ sound forty-three seconds in. Imbernon’s iconic reverb ambience echoes over the low drones and hints of Harrbåda off Deadly Algorithm come seeping through the speakers.
Imbernon vs Qstaw spells out the next track simply and both Imbernon and Wikström show off their talents while playing to each other’s strengths. Project 86 is a fantastic album by Qstaw with the help of the talented Jocke Norgren on drums. Wikström created some phenomenal droning music that captured your attention. On Project 86, Wikström’s outstanding work was enhanced by Norgren’s flawless drums, while on Ambient Doom Dream it’s enhanced by Imbernon’s unique sonar style leads.
layers of drones creating a foundation for the reverb delayed lead…
The single, Turbulent Times, is preceded by a short transitional piece that connects it with Imbernon vs Qstaw seamlessly. The entire album has the same feel with layers of drones creating a foundation for the reverb delayed lead over the top, which may sound boring after a few minutes, let alone fifty, but Gangrened have a way of holding your attention and getting you excited for what’s to come. Turbulent Times allows you to close your eyes and escape, you consume the energy of the song and enjoy the repetitive yet intriguing sounds.
After one more transitional interlude (which I might add is seven minutes that gets rather heavy and ties in with Intro), Gangrened fans are treated with a new live rendition of Kuningatar Intro off Deadly Algorithm. I was initially drawn into a trance with this album as the smooth effortless transition into this song made me think it was a new song created for this album, but later realized it was Kuningatar which was a very cool surprise.
The duo exceeded all expectations on this release and while it may not be for everyone, I truly hope you give it a shot because it is an album that I find myself revisiting quite often already.
Label: Clouded Mind Records
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Josh Schneider
