The Orwellian Dream was mastered by longtime The Black Dahlia Murder engineer Ryan Williams. More recently, Williams has been working with The Zenith Passage, who have put out some of the finest examples of technical death metal in recent memory. So production-wise, Sentiment Dissolve are in very capable hands.
Speaking of the mix, this album does two things that I absolutely love in a death metal record. The first is that you can actually hear the bass guitar! So many metal albums have the bass simply mirroring the drums or being completely drowned out. The Orwellian Dream has a lot of bouncy bass lines that add a lot of otherworldly alien accents. “Transcending the Hierarchy of Knowledge” shows an example of this mixological wizardry and features some tasty guitar work.
Second, “The Orwellian Dream” delivers vocals with variety and clarity. Without any distracting effects or samples, the vocals on this record are crystal clear. The overall presentation is a simple meat and potatoes affair. There’s a lot of technique here, but not at the expense of groove.
Mostly in the lower register, the vocals on this record are a flurry of growls, shrieks, howls and screams in a variety of flavors. I’m pretty sure I heard some pig squealing at one point. Sentiment Dissolve also uses these almost rap or scat-like rhythms in some sections. The back and forth assault of multiple vocalists in different styles is super refreshing. Especially in a genre that sometimes suffers from monotonous growls.
These vocal dualities are especially powerful on the outstanding closer “The Orwellian Dream”. I can certainly see why they chose to give it the album name to really highlight this track. I wouldn’t say they saved the best for last, there are highlights all over the album, but “The Orwellian Dream” certainly has an incredibly strong finish.
Pre-order The Orwellian Dreams, which is out May 24 via CDN Records, now on Bandcamp and be sure to follow Sentiment Dissolve on Facebook and Instagram.
