Nuclear Blast 2008

 Prior to my receiving Awaken The Dreamers, the latest from Oakland’s All Shall Perish, my only experience with the band was in confusing them with All That Remains. However, hearing that Seattle’s Luke Jaeger (of Sleep Terror/Hunab Ku) had joined ASP on their most recent European tour made me curious to hear what the band had to offer. I confess to being pretty damn impressed with this, their latest release.  

The album begins with a Meshuggah-esque stutter in “When Life Meant More”, the mid-section of which is resplendent with shred-heavy necrophagia. My attention was immediately captured by the well recorded vocals of  frontman Hernan Hermida, which are brutal yet highly intelligible. On Awaken The Dreamers, Hernan rarely feels the need to sing clean, staying true to a death metal ethic even during many of the most emotional sections, a definite plus in my opinion.

Next up, “Black Gold Reign”, a powerfully melodic track featuring a heavy, chugging riff countered with fluttering arpeggios, something that seems to be a signature of the band. This is a very cool songwriting touch that really brings these riffs to life, and it reappears in the next excellent cut “Never Again” as well.

The listener is given a moment to breath in the soulful respite “The Ones We Left Behind”, before the band digs into the epic title track, which features spark shooting guitar work from Chris Story, and some texture adding fills from bassist Mike Tiner, making for another great tune.

However, the band stumbles a bit over the next few songs, as the whispery echoing vocals of “Memories of a Glass Sanctuary” call to mind Maiden’s “Strange World”, a few nifty guitar lines at songs end doing little to alleviate boredom. “Stabbing to Purge Dissimilation” answers with welcome brutality, before it devolves into a one note breakdown. This trend infects the next track as well, “Bound, Gagged, Shelved, and Forgotten” which deserves that very fate, the tune’s one note chunk chunk chugga chugga chunk snooze riff one the one cd’s few missteps.

Fortunately, this is followed by a fantastic four song close to the album. First, we are witness to the wholly satisfying old school death metal vibe of “From So Far Away”, (I love Matt Kuykendall’s drumming on this one) followed by the fantastic solo filled instrumental “Until The End”, the atmospheric seque “Misery’s Introduction”, and the excellent soul galvanizing “Songs of the Damned” and it’s blues drenched outro.  

In all, Awaken the Dreamers is a winner, filled with loads of high quality, well-textured, technical yet accessable guitar work. It leans a little heavy on breakdown-centric riffs at times for a band with this kind of chops, but I’m sure many modern metal fans will find that more appealing than I do. And the cover is freaking awesome.

7/10