{"id":18687,"date":"2014-05-13T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T00:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=18687"},"modified":"2014-05-20T17:06:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T17:06:48","slug":"album-review-shadowdream-um","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-shadowdream-um\/","title":{"rendered":"SHADOWDREAM – Um (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHADOWDREAM
Um<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nWormHoleDeath (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Anyone who goes by the name Magister Nocturnal is clearly going to be a musician who likes to dabble in the weird, haunting and sinister. Magister Nocturnal is the lone force behind Shadowdream, a rather quizzical act hailing from Serbia who since 2004 has dwelt in musical voids that many would fear to tread.<\/p>\n

It would be unfair to call Shadowdream\u2019s sixth full-length release soundtrack music, but one could quite easily imagine this sort of ambient darkness caressing a peculiar horror film, such is its potency.<\/p>\n

Yes, this sort of music is an acquired taste in the sense that it doesn\u2019t exactly deliver crushing riffs, (or any riffs for that matter!) pummelling percussion and deathly vocal growls, but if you like strange soundscapes, haunting passages and threatening hums of suspense then this is right up there with Neptune Towers and Enoch, although Um<\/em> is less cosmic than the former and minus the sheer horror of the latter.<\/p>\n

Um<\/em> could easily be deemed mood music; the sort of soundtrack to pass away the dark hours and maybe even drift off to, such is its almost soothing approach. However, it\u2019s not all as simple as that. While opener \u2018Theological Agnosia\u2019 merely exists as a brooding storm that never once breaks the haunting, \u2018Intermetamorphosis – The Abandoned Inhuman\u2019 is a rather chilling episode that wouldn\u2019t seem out of place accompanying a ghost story, such is its nature. While the main instrumentation exists as a brooding groan, the gothic orchestration brings with it a set of diabolical whispers and creepy chants. I\u2019m a huge fan of eerie music when there is an injection of effects and odd voices, and while still very much an instrumental \u2013 well, the whole album is \u2013 one dare not drift off to this one just in case upon waking you find a host of fleeting shadows flitting about the room.<\/p>\n

There is something so suggestive about Um<\/em>; it\u2019s a mere peek into a dark corner and a spectre in the corner of the retina. Hidden within this parlour of peculiarity are things that never wish to fully reveal themselves. \u2018First Episode \u2013 Hysteria\u2019 dances on tiptoe; again, it is spectral in nature, evoking images of a phantom ballerina or dancing ghostly children who are at once playful yet mournful. The track features a jazzy drum which litters the haunting melody, but \u2018Bedlam \u2013 Take My Life\u2019 is a complete contract; a weird avantgarde mesh of Darth Vader huffs, entrancing sitar and Eastern drum thumps, but it\u2019s literally nothing more than that.<\/p>\n

Of all the tracks, it\u2019s the David Lynch (director of Twin Peaks<\/em>, Blue Velvet<\/em>) styled \u2018Pavor Nocturnus \u2013 Death To Me\u2019 that floats my boat. Again, just like every other track, it only hints at a darker side as the drums skip spasmodically yet deftly over those sombre strains of surrealism. It tapers away into some remote asylum of distant yells and tortured moans, suggesting someone of demonically possessed mind is inhabiting the room next door, but it harbours a door we dare not open.<\/p>\n

Each track here deserves its own description, whether in the form of sprinkling delights of the cosmic \u2018Second Episode \u2013 Schizophrenia\u2019, the inner psyche trauma of \u2018Ghost Sickness \u2013 End of Life\u2019 or the closing crawl of \u2018The Cotard Delusion\u2019.<\/p>\n

There is nothing remotely \u201cmetal\u201d about Um<\/em> but if you have ever paddled in the murky waters outside of the box that many fear to open, then this opus is ideal for those who don\u2019t simply rely on guitars, bass, drum and vocal to see the night through. Whether Um<\/em> evokes nightmares of pleasant dreams is solely down to the listener and their perception, but whatever your opinion there is clearly something lurking behind the black door… otherwise known as Um<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHADOWDREAMUm WormHoleDeath (2014)Rating: 8\/10 Anyone who goes by the name Magister Nocturnal is clearly going to be a musician who likes to dabble in the weird, haunting and sinister. Magister Nocturnal is the lone force behind Shadowdream, a rather quizzical act hailing from Serbia who since 2004 has dwelt in musical voids that many would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-shadowdream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18687"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18692,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18687\/revisions\/18692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}