Review Summary: An improvement across the board for an already nifty classic metal formula
Despite six years and a couple personnel changes since Sumerlands’ 2016 self-titled debut, their second album offers many of the same Ozzy Osbourne through a Pagan Altar filter classic metal tricks. The production keeps everything drenched in reverb with the guitar shredding and vocals caught up in a haze while the songwriting reconciles ominous atmospherics and catchy anthems. Yet somehow the time between releases has only improved their execution of the formula.
Right off the bat, the biggest change that Dreamkiller has to offer is the inclusion of Magic Circle’s Brendan Radigan for vocals. As much as Phil Swanson’s more Ozzy-esque moan made for a unique approach, Radigan might be a better fit; his wails have a more commanding presence that gives better clarity to the melodies while still maintaining a doomy aura. It might’ve also rubbed off the other musicians as the drumming feels spryer and the guitars have a heftier presence. It’s still foggy but not so much as to undermine the material.
The songwriting has also gotten considerably tighter in the years away, echoing the debut’s snappy runtime and straightforward performances. The singles proved to be wise choices as the title track and “Force of a Storm” are great speedy workouts with a particularly hard-hitting chorus on the former and prominent synths on the latter while “Edge of the Knife” has the sort of mid-tempo pacing that calls for fist-pumping. I can also get into the more seventies hard rock flavor on “Heavens Above” as well as the more brooding moods on “Night Ride” and “The Savior’s Lie.”
As interesting as it could’ve been for Sumerlands to just be that one band with the cool one-off 2016 effort, I’m quite glad to see Dreamkiller come out so strong. It is an improvement across the board with their already nifty style made even stronger by means of more engaging musicianship and even catchier songwriting. Perhaps a couple songs could’ve been a little longer to fill things out, but it’s hard to complain about such a concise high-quality release. One just hopes it won’t take this long for the third album to come around.
