Heartbound

Audio Mixer: Cameron Mizell.
Recording information: Chango Studios, Orlando, FL (2011); Orlando, FL (2011); Starlight Studios (2011).
Australian alternative/hardcore sextet Dream on Dreamer represent the felicitous combination of an existing quintet (including American expatriate drummer Aaron Fiocca) with German exchange student Marcel Gadacz, who came in as their sixth member and vocalist. Their full-length debut, Heartbound, is in some ways an unremarkable effort, its metal rhythm tracks generic for the form and the combination of Gadacz's howl with bassist Michael McLeod's tuneful singing also a hardcore readymade. Nor are the lyrics, such as they can be discerned, much beyond the usual round of epithets and recriminations. But the band's arrangements make room for Daniel Jungwirth's keyboards, which add texture and dimension to the assault, sometimes including a halo of string-like sounds to the devilish proceedings, elsewhere providing respite from the onslaught, as in the calm coda to "To the Lost." As a first album, Heartbound demonstrates the young group's competence and suggests it may have more to contribute than just another entry in an already crowded field, though that remains only a suggestion. ~ William Ruhlmann