Darkness and depression are forces that are nearly impossible to avoid in one’s lifetime. No one gets out unscathed, and it’s a matter of how one deals with these issues that determines the damage sustained. The battle also doesn’t need to be grim all the time, and if you can laugh at yourself or at least make morbid jokes, it can serve to soothe wounds.

“Faded Dream,” the debut album from Neon Nightmare, treads those dark waters over seven tracks, and it’s clear that there is some mental and personal heaviness worked into these 41 minutes. This project, helmed by a creator who has yet to be named (though his creative spirit is adrift over these songs), definitely pays homage to Type O Negative-style bleak dark metal, but there also is a nice helping of doom and southern-fried sludge that adds some interesting textures to these bruisers. It also tackles the thorny issues that haunt us with a sardonic tone, understanding the weight of the matter but also refusing to be taken alive without some of our own jabs making deep contact.

“Higher Calling” opens, and don’t be a fool like me and get tricked into thinking you left your phone on vibrate. That’s just what slides over this intro track before the unrest swarms into “Lost Silver” that simmers in a bed of cold synth. The vocals are gothy and frosty, creaking over, the chorus coming to life, and if you don’t know who this artist is by now, I can’t help you. “Where did you go? Can’t feel you anymore,” he calls, hazy guitars lathering, fading into a glowing mist. “It’s All Over (For You)” is chilly, deeper singing boiling, the chorus warming your insides. “Rearranging chairs on the Titanic, everything’s OK, nobody panic,” he muses, the tempo beginning to get warmer, leads charging, keys blurring into time. “LATW2TG” is a little grungy and swaggering, the singing punching, the chorus bathing in sludge as our sole creator calls, “Laughing all the way to the grave.” Psychedelic thickness clogs veins as guitars catch fire, sun-scorched playing bleeding sepia.

“They Look Like Shadows” begins awash in piledriving power, grittier singing rising, sweltering heaviness making itself a force with which to be reckoned. The playing basks in echo, guitars bursting through clouds, the chorus punching back one more time with force.  “She’s Drowning” has chugging guitars and synth beaming, deeper singing again sinking into your bloodstream. Hazy and gothy guitars spread fog, sounds spilling over the edges, moody fires swallowing whole and pushing you through the razors. Closer “Promethean Gift” is the longest track, running 9:44, starting in a ghostly murk, guitars bending as softer singing creates the illusion of comfort. Images of a beast stuck inside, trying to crawl its way out makes this mission more harrowing, steamy guitar work wilting flesh, the call of, “He thrives on setting fires and spreading his disease,” sickening stomachs. Things turn strangely breezy, serenity raining cold drizzle, synth swimming through guitars’ oil fires.

Neon Nightmare clearly is a project that serves as a love letter to a certain era of goth-inspired metal, but our artist also injects some southern muscle into “Faded Dream” and doomy fire more reminiscent of his main project. It’s also cool that this is serious music but with a wry, curved smile, one that is trying to let you in on the misery but reminding you not to let it have power. This is a fun excursion, one that hopefully has more chapters ahead because if it shape-shifts like his main band, the future is exciting and uncertain.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.instagram.com/neonnightmaresucks/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/collections/neon-nightmare

For more on the label, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/