Freed from a glass-built prison of rejection we see the great works of nature (and man) through the eyes of the erotomania afflicted Poliphilus, who’d dreamt at the roots of trees before finding himself in the shadow of great architectural wonders, met with surreal trials in hopes of journeying his way back to love. Roman progressive rock inspired death metal quartet BEDSORE walk us through this ancient tale taking their time to seep the senses of the listener within fantastic realms of dragon-headed halls and impossibly jagged mountain paths toward a peaking reconstitution away from the sting of unrequited love on this sophomore full-length album. A complete inversion of prior principles ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ no longer finds these fellowes presenting an experimentation of mid-90’s death metal infused tones given to 70’s progressive rock’s cinematic elementalism but rather the framing and structures of classic progressive rock given personalized prog-death metal voicing. In taking a step none’ve been bold (or skilled) enough to manage to date we find an authentic voice, esoteric and damned playful in its touch as it arrives steadily levitating. They’ve lost none of their thrilling linearity via an every-note-counts directorial sensibility which pervades all of their work, here every loom is fed with a wizened right-handed intent that finds the band gathering still more gravitas and thickened oeuvre throughout this pure-pleasure of a second great work.
Every moment accounted for and every bit of it a climb toward a shouting peak Bedsore‘s birth into public view circa 2018 with their first demo tape (‘Bedsore‘, 2018) had instantly spoken to me as fluid theatrics, the sonic dynamism of ‘Sweven‘ taken to a full 70’s prog rock meets post-music extension, or at least a vertical slice of what’d been possible. Their work was alien enough that folks couldn’t agree if it were metal or not for the sake of its point of entry being unclear to the metal-limited spectrum. In fact that delirium’d been a symptom of 70’s progressive rock culture (as in modus of craft, ethos) heavily influencing that initial outcome where tension primarily came from cinematic buildering amidst wrathful breaks into death metal fumes (see: Morbus Chron, Edge of Sanity.) This directly indicated the structure but not the complete realization of their debut LP (‘Hypnagogic Hallucinations‘, 2020) which’d been an enormous record for my own experience that year. Not only did I give it a highest recommendation possible in review but I’d interviewed the group and gotten some vitally important information on where they were coming from. In terms of pre-empting the full back story those two items would be the best place to start, at least in gaining some admiration for their taste and the way they’d found fusion in such unlikely distant points of inspiration.
Of course anno MMXX was a different time and place as brains lulled into comfort amidst distress, creativity returned to dormant minds, the flow of unnecessary and abundantly uninteresting works only just begins to cease away from its bubble four years later… Now is probably the most “right” time to reconnect with Bedsore‘s meticulous creativity and of course there’d been no real way to predict what’d happen next between the possibilities available to any modern progressive death metal band: Progress (ambitious reinvention) or decadence (isolated iteration.) Since all available material ’til 2022’s split with Mortal Incarnation focused on lending cinematic tension to death metal centric rhythmic composition the spongey fretless bass and keyboard/synth forward sensation of “Shapes from Beyond the Veil of Stars and Space” began to suggest where ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ might go but it was ultimately more of a bridge, a gap filled, and a gloriously wandering piece that’d been constrained as a standalone work. While I’d liked that song a fair deal I’m not sure it was what I’d wanted for a second LP in terms of sound design being somewhat chaotic as the piles of leads used muddled its dramatic messaging. None of this applies to what we find on this new album which, as you might’ve inferred by now, is something completely different.
Built to depict key events from the romantic mythic-allegorical renaissance-era book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream by Francesco Colonna this second Bedsore long-player comes pre-loaded with interest by way of its inspirational sourcing for its aesthetic, thematic and lyrical focus which uses the late 15th century books revival of auld Roman by way of Greek mythic ideation to create a fantastical world for its tainted love story. Launched from point of love-struck defeat toward tormented determination and yearning (tested via trials and tribulations) both the original story and the tone of ‘Dreaming the Strife For Love‘ only become increasingly surreal and ethereal as they progress in narrative. Instrumental opener “Minerva’s Obelisque” fittingly bears both passion and purgatory in its slowly loosened tensions, one bass guitar run or distorted Hammond organ flex after another. While some implementation of mood and illustration of a complex scene or two end up simpler in depiction than others the overall presentation here does an exceptional job of conveying the surreal mood of its source material.
From my point of view ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ is structured like the first Emerson, Lake & Palmer record with more direct use of motif throughout its first half a la Sweven‘s LP ‘The Eternal Resonance‘ sans any too direct post-music elevation, finding the linkage between early 2010’s psychedelic death metal and 70’s prog rock doesn’t need to be so heavily weighted to either side thanks to their mastery of the synthesizer. Without any side-eyeing of recent works from Horrendous or Blood Incantation what ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ does best in order to faithfully merge -both- of these worlds is appropriately otherworldly in its concurrent authenticities. You’ll feel this most readily as a death metal fan as “Scars of Light” makes its first several daring pushes into the aether. In truth it’ll potentially sound a bit like Morbus Chron taking on Flower Travellin’ Band‘s ‘Satori‘ to start and a far field away from anything on ‘Hypnagogic Hallucinations‘. From flute-borne highs to snickering devils in the chorus and an eventual slinking Sigh-esque roll-out this waltzing muse incites something theatric and manic at once, a piece which is caught in the throes of birth and howling a bit as it cracks through. Fans of everything from Birth Control to the ranting style of Tarkus-slinging Keith Emerson should appreciate the opening moments of this record and their strong feature of the keyboard herein excluding all but the most open-minded death metal fandom and those perhaps massaged into place by records like ‘Absolute Elsewhere‘ earlier this year.
Curiosity should still be lingering by the time ~12 minute mid-album sweeper “A Colossus, and Elephant, a Winged Horse, the Dragon Rendezvous” steps in to more thoroughly characterize the full listen with an elbow-deep plunge into the unknown, a smoke break or two, and the heated tracer whipping movement of Bedsore summed into one atmo-symphonic prog piece. These are technically a set of trials from the story, an invagination of the plot that is intensely surreal, which is depicted in the most playfully achieved piece on ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ not only for the sake of its reeling, regal yet fusion-incensed movement but for the heavy focus on keys/synth and such to build it out into worthy extension. You can prescribe and figure the sound of auld prog and its stylized pockets through study but Stefano Allegretti brings a brilliant sense of gestural charm to each performance, choosing both vintage lead patches/voicing and some modern soundtrack level muse for deeper atmospheric builds. While that third song triggers things into gear the next two, “Realm of Eleuterillide” and especially “Fanfare for a Heartfelt Love”, pay loudest tribute to their love of British and German progressive rock synth muse at least when the keys/Hammond B3 are acting as the lead instrument. The latter of which is probably as far-out as Bedsore ultimately go with this record though they’re still riding the line between their work representing “metal” in any direct, obviate sense.
All tides and temperaments resolve within the final revelation offered by “Fountain of Venus” another multi-tiered longform piece which has an almost desert rocking rhythmic traipse faceted into its first half, at least once the engine starts running. Framed by vintage Hammond tones and shuddering rhythm guitar movement there is a strong breadth of sounds funneled through this song as it reveals its shocks of extreme pacing and some of the more active fretless bass guitar work on ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ in general, not quite the funk walk threatening to happen as found on “Minerva’s Obelisque” but a notable point of voicing nonetheless. The effect is almost too laid back overall as a finale but with consideration for Bedsore‘s core inspiration the flow of the full listen isn’t interrupted or damaged by its luminous, spiritualized exodus. Knowing the story of the book in question helps reinforce that this is the right choice for the material rather than for an esoteric prog rock album from a death metal persuasion which might leave folks wanting more fanfare on the way out.
If there is one core criticism one could manage it’d likely come from the pure death metal fan wanting more death metal rhythm in general, in that case an album like ‘Absolutely Elsewhere‘ is probably more your speed. For folks attuned to both classic prog rock and a certain niche strain of death metal beyond the early 2010’s this’ll manage to be a wild outlier and a fittingly representative work from Bedsore. Their meticulous but easy-shouldered nature is truly in the spirit of classic prog musicianship first and foremost, so, they’ve not forced death metal into their work in hybrid so much as used it as one point of extremity per the narration in question as called for. Beyond this note I have to say I admired that these folks surprised me again, not only was their previous album shockingly neat and pro, created with wholly considered intent but it’d found an angle that was entirely their own and this time around they’ve taken another appreciably bold turn and succeeded in an entirely unique experience. There are surely other releases in this category circa 2024 but nothing that sounds anything like ‘Dreaming the Strife for Love‘ in action. I could go on about the brilliancy of the packaging and art, the old-but-new production values and choices of tone, the way the mood of the record evolves with familiarity but you’ve gotten the idea by now that this is an exceptional work from a band that’ve been entirely consistent in every work released. Easily one of the best death metal-adjacent releases of the year. A very high recommendation.
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