DREAM WEAPON

By now its a fairly familiar tale. An American millennial extreme music artist from the early to mid 'oughts specializing in "smothing-core," decides to dial back the intensity and veer off into some electronic and post-rock experimentation. Its a phenomenon that is both equal parts meme and illustration of the immense power of the zeitgeist. An artist's creative direction is already decided by the current around them. Only whether they sink below the changing tide, swim ahead of it, or find themselves carried by it in the form of a meme is left undetermined.

Dream Weapon, Genghis Tron's first album since 2008, is very much in the spirit of this change in zeitgeist. Tron rose to relative prominence a decade and a half ago as an artist known for blending the extreme hardcore and metalcore prominent at the time with electronica. Particularly notable was their use of a drum machine in place of a real drummer. Initially used out of necessity due to not finding a suitable drummer, the drum machine eventually became the defining feature of Tron's sound. In hind- sight, Tron's introduction of synthetic and electronic sounds seems to have heralded the trend in the wider context.

Enter 2021's Dream Weapon, a record so utterly unrecognizable from its predecessor's that it might as well have been put out by a different artist. Short sprints of aggression and brutality have been replaced by spacious and repetitive electronic ambiance. The post-hardcore screams and cries of former singer Mookie Singerman have been replaced by the distant droning croons of Tony Wolski. Even the drum machine has been replaced by flesh and blood drummer Nick Yacyshyn. Though the usage of a real drummer may seem like a step away from the electronic frontier, in context, the acoustic drums serve to advance the record along its perpendicular post-rock axis of experimentation.

While Dream Weapon is certainly a drastic departure for Genghis Tron, as I've already indicated, I can't really say its all that unexpected when taking broader music trends into context. Still, this record sees the band both comfortable and inspired in their new skin, producing some immensely captivating music along the way. The record's sole weakness is in just how maddingly restrained it can be across most of its run time. Though successful in building long trance-inducing passages, the album definitely could have afforded passages with more prominent vocals and guitar riffs, akin to what the band did on the track "Dream Weapon." Nevertheless Dream Weapon is worthwhile entry to the band's small but respected discography.

Part of the reason these reviews have been less frequent as of late is that I'm simply having a harder-than-usual time finding new music which really speaks to me. Unless it's a fairly big-name act, I don't have much motivation to write 400-800 words on a record where the score will be in the 50s. Thankfully, Dream Weapon came along and snapped me out of that funk.

I'd never heard of Genghis Tron before this album, and I can see why that might have been. They were initially active in the mid-2000s before taking a 13-year hiatus. I'd also never heard of the cybergrind genre, but it's a fitting name. It takes the aggression and energy of genres like mathcore and grindcore and pumps it through synthesizers galore. (Interesting sidenote: "mathcore" is considered a real word by MS Word, but "grindcore" is not.)

What this record almost reminds me of is Justice's debut album. Where ? is an electronic album with a significant hard rock/heavy metal substrate, Dream Weapon feels like it's coming from the other direction. It's definitely a metal album, but electronic music thoroughly imbues its DNA.

After a brief, spacey instrumental intro song, "Pyrocene" kicks things off strong. Pulsing synths and programmed drums set a steady tempo under dreamy, processed vocals. There's an infectious groove to this cut, and the anxiety of the verses contrasts wonderfully with the swelling majesty of the chorus.

Following this relatively restrained opener, the title track roars forth with full metallic fury. The drums are pummeling, and the guitars and synths mesh so well it can be tough to tell which sound is which instrument. The song's midsection lessens the intensity, opting instead to build texture and atmosphere atop a looping guitar line. The resolution to this in the song's final minute is both ethereal and incredibly heavy. "Desert Stairs" offers a much-welcomed breather after the preceding madness. This two-minute synthesizer meditation is a bit longer than it needs to be, but it doesn't hamper the album's flow.

A plinking synthesizer opens "Alone in the Heart of the Light". This is reminiscent of That 1 Guy's more electronic material. Around two minutes in, the drumkit joins, adding to the song's nervous energy. A synthesizer line which sounds like it could have been borrowed from a Jon Lord organ solo crops up, acting as a backdrop to an extended section of atmospheric build-up.

The 10-minute "Ritual Circle" is Dream Weapon's longest song. Another subdued, electronic section kicks this track off, and Genghis Tron again takes their time building things up. At no point does it feel like padding, though. Even after repeated listens, it all works excellently. By the song's midpoint, it's reached a state of harsh, buzzing agitation which effortlessly transitions to a mellower, krautrocky movement.

The first half of the instrumental "Single Black Point" is one of the more overtly metallic moments on the album. It opens with oddly-metered palm-muted guitars which harken back the band's more explicitly mathcore-y past. The drums get a chance to shine in this song's first half, tossing in all kinds of fills and rolls under the repetitive instrumentation.

"Great Mother" closes out Dream Weapon on a bang. Huge walls of guitar loom on this track, and it adds some nice oomph after the preceding mostly-electronic cuts.

Dream Weapon is a refreshingly different record, and it's introduced me to a new pico-genre to explore. The combination frenetic metal and lush electronics is an enthralling contrast, and I'm especially impressed by the pacing of this record. The songs flow well, and the order they're in makes a lot of sense.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2021/03/29/album-review-genghis-tron-dream-weapon/