Rating: 6.5

Country: France

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Self Produced

Track list:
1. Human's Decay 04:04
2. Le Sacrilege Intime 04:40
3. Cruel Hysteria 03:46
4. Wolves Torment 04:45
5. Doloris Corpus 06:51

Total playing time 24:00

Band Website: Unhealthy Dreams

Unhealthy Dreams - Doloris Corpus

Jean-Pierre Ugolini - Guitar
Ray - Vocals
Abside - Drums
Daemonicreator - Synths, Effects

France. At the risk of abusing a cliché, there must be something in the water. Not only do they have one of the best modern black metal scenes, but also one of the most creative and fucked up. This, of course, creates some lofty expectations that Unhealthy Dreams challenge with a unique fusion of electronic music and black metal.

Doloris Corpus is an interesting machine that welds Plasma Pool-esque EBM theatrics and feathery darkwave touches with ultra-clinical industrial black metal. "Dehumanized" is the word it all brings to mind; mechanical grooves and angular time signature acrobatics are delivered in a smothering wall of sound, with pinch harmonics thrown all over the place. Ray's vocals are your typical industrial black metal fare; lifeless hissing and rasping, loaded with distortion. Not bad, but a more interesting vocal performance could really help these guys. Once in a while they deviate from their usual staccato power chords and play a couple tremolo riffs, but it seems more like out of a sense of obligation than necessity. The synth is, not unlike the guitar tone, intentionally tinny and muffled, resulting in what could easily pass for a high quality FPS video game soundtrack.

If Unhealthy Dreams were a martial artist, they would be a drunken boxer; they have their moments of brilliance, but even their most potent ideas are delivered in an awkward shamble. For instance, the rudimentary groove riff zigzagging in and out of the eerily loping choral synth and flute accentuations in "La Sacrilege Intime" feels like an intrusion on what could be a truly transcendental listening experience, while the subdued electronic clattering near the end of "Cruel Hysteria" brings to mind Abruptum, and is far more interesting than the oppressive muted pulse of a guitar tone behind which it throbs.

While a lot of the obvious metal reference points here (Aborym, Mysticum, Thorns, Grand Declaration of War-era Mayhem, etc.) are essentially black metal riddled with random industrial and electronic bits, the first thing I noticed about Unhealthy Dreams is that most of their songs are basically dystopian electronic soundscapes that just happen to have some brief interjections of metal. Even when black metal is the focal point of the song, as soon as you get into it, it's invariably hijacked by a lengthy spasmodic techno freakout. This is actually a good thing, because the delivery of the electronic side of Unhealthy Dreams' sonic spectrum is much more convincing -- this the sole basis on which the somewhat weak riffs are forgiven. The song "Wolves' Torment," for example, is brilliant because it revels in the post-apocalyptic bleakness Unhealthy Dreams excel at without repeating one mediocre riff to the point of tedium in effort at making it stick.

Overall, purists will want to avoid Doloris Corpus, but if you're yearning for a day when barbed wire is a commodity and the zinc in pennies is worth more than any dollar bill, give this a chance. Mind you, it's all a bit gothy for my taste, and I'm no techno enthusiast, but I can appreciate the energy invested in this exercise of black ambience.

January 3rd, 2008