Dawnbringer

In Sickness and Dreams

Battle Kommand Records 2006

Battle Kommand has been treating me to some great gems as of late so It was with a sense of comfort and assurance that I placed the new album from their latest signing in my CD player.  Dawnbringer is a one man American musical force of extreme metal.  In Sickness and Dreams is instantly catchy and enjoyable.  Most of them are well written and thought out and Chris Black is obviously a talented musician and songwriter. He incorporates different aspects from many of his favorite influences throughout the world of metal.  My favorite songs are 11:58 and Midnight which follow each other and sound like they were lifted straight off of King Diamond's Abigail album.  There are plenty of flaws on this album such as its lack of focus and 24 minute length.  I say lack of focus because the material is all over the place and I know he did it on purpose but that doesn't mean I necessarily enjoy it.  There are several reasons this could have happened.  I mean it has been 8 years since Dawnbringer's last album and therefore the material was written over an extended period of time.  The vocals are in general a raspy death metal growl but there are plenty of clean melodic vocals scattered about too.  And as I noted before the album is so short in length that by the time you have started to take it in the album is already over and you feel a little bit teased/cheated.  In the end Dawnbringer sounds a lot like an entity that wouldn't be out of place in the Gothenburg scene with its over the top melody and Judas Priest worship.  I think Dawnbringer has mountains of potential and with a tighter focus and a little more time with which to express his ideas within the framework of an album he might become an unstoppable force within Extreme metal.  Hopefully we don't have to wait another 8 years to find out.