Five records into a career, it’s not super common a band figures out something that really works, galvanizes them and lights something under them that hadn’t burned quite that brightly before. Yet it happened with Dreadnought, a band that built an impressive resume over their first four records and unlocked some really interesting mental and sonic space.
“Wars of Spirits // Wards of Light” is the band’s fifth record, and wouldn’t you know it? It’s a revelation for a band that already was operating on a high level. Boiled down to a four piece— Kelly Schilling (vocals, guitars, keys, synth), Ryan Sims (guitars, vocals), Kevin Handlon (bass), Jordan Clancy (drums, percussion)—Dreadnought unleash a new adventure and reality, sounding like a different animal with sharper claws, even more ambition, and jolting a volcanic gust into something otherworldly. It’s a record that keeps your heart pounding and reveals different hues, like nature itself rolled out a majestic display that makes your imagination work overtime, happily.
“Tiamat’s Gate” immediately signals things are different as we join in the clouds, Schilling’s singing enrapturing and feeling as if visiting Kate Bush terrain, the playing sweeping and rousing. Howls wrench as calm arrives, breathy echoes gasping, a sinister sense crawling up your spine, the playing ravaging and pressing lungs. The pace cools as piano notes splash, propulsive playing powers, and everything fades. “The Archive” starts with growls gutting, burly playing flexing, and breathy singing fluttering, roars arriving as the keys surge. Icy speaking chills as screams tear at sanity, the tempo trudges, and the final moments exhale fuzz and hypnosis. “Colors of Our Broken Hearts” dashes with synth and powerful singing, keys icing as Sims’ voice joins the fray, a cosmic gaze sprawling and arresting. Speaking clouds as the guitars snarl, the pace combusts, and a lightning strike buries.
“Serpents of the Moon” opens with the bass slinking and the singing floating, the pace plotting as synth clouds build, and the sound washes out like your ears filled with water. The vocals coat as keys plink, the playing growing more immersive, the power bursting as guitars scuff, sci-fi fog and staticky beats stinging. The pace then explodes, swelling the drama, the keys tingling, and roars fading into the clouds. “Aeonwar” starts with keys glazing, the singing cooling, and then shrieks tearing at the senses, guitars coming unglued as the atmosphere turns volatile. Alien strangeness surrounds as propulsive playing makes waves, screams belt, and hearts race anew. Keys drip as the temperatures cool, Schilling speaking, “And so they met their grand awakening with nothing but spirit to guide them.” “The Twilight Protectorate” closes, unfurling prog-fueled keys, rousing singing, and a light glaring like sunrise, guitars flexing as Sims takes the lead with Schilling responding. The playing spellbinds, Schilling calling, “My soul is not for you to take,” the playing gushing as growls punish, the drums hammer even harder, and everything rushes to a spirited end.
“Wars of Spirits // Wards of Light” is a revelatory record for Dreadnought, their most daring and commanding entry in their catalog, and also one of their most exciting, which is saying something based on their past output. Everything is bigger here, but not in a way that aims to overwhelm or bathe in gloss. This is a creation from a band who found their true self, poured all of themselves into the music, and created their own fantasy terrain where they make up the rules.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.dreadnoughtdenver.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://linktr.ee/vesperian
For more on the label, go here: https://www.vesperian.world/
And here: https://www.metalblade.com/us/
Meat Mead Metal 