Dream State are a band with a lot of pressure behind them. After winning a Kerrang Award for Best British Breakthrough Act at the 2018 ceremony and accumulating over a million streams from their 2018 EP Recovery, the hype was definitely there, but could they deliver on their debut album? It feels as though it’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally upon us and am happy to say that it is a resounding success.
“Made Up Smile” opens proceedings up with an almost new founded maturity and is the perfect way to make a statement. Throughout its almost six minutes in length, it bounces along and you can imagine audiences in the upcoming tour doing exactly the same. Lyrically it’s also very poignant, talking about inner anguish and suffering that will relate to a lot of people and these themes are prominent throughout the record reflecting the struggles lead vocalist CJ Gilpin had previously gone through.
The first single “Hand In Hand” which was released all of the way back in March of this year, admittedly didn’t quite click with me at first. Initially it felt like a departure from what they had previously recorded on their EP’s. However, over time, you realise how it’s the perfect progression of how they’ve gone forward as a band. It fits into the whole aesthetic of the album and is followed up by “Open Windows”, one of the strongest songs on the record. It’s probably the closest in terms of style to their older material, but now it feels bigger and more layered than before.
“Spitting Lies” feels pop-punky in its tone and musically is one of the more light-hearted tracks. That’s not to say that there isn’t heaviness on it, at around the three minute mark we hear those screams that we are used to as Gilpin feels like she’s pouring her heart out directly to the listener. “Out Of The Blue” is one of the heaviest tracks they’ve released so far with an opening riff reminiscent of the likes of “Architects”. It’s sure to be one of the ones get the pits moving live.
“Chapters” gives guitarist Rhys Wilcox the chance to showcase his vocals off and it’s a really welcomed change of pace to the album which perfectly fits in with everything else that has come before it. The slow build up leads up to him and Gilpin duetting together at the end and the release feels almost cathartic. “Primrose” was the second little teaser we got of the album and its blend of synths and heavy screams work together gloriously throughout.
“I Feel It To” is a culmination of everything that has come before and almost feels like the other side of the coin from what we heard at the beginning. You hear Gilpin’s voice almost breaking with emotion towards the end and you can tell that it’s something that they have put everything into. For an album which deals with dark themes and ideas, it also feels so full of life. The energy doesn’t let up throughout and is a bold statement from what are still such a young band. It’s been on hard rotation for the past couple of weeks and I don’t see that changing for a long while to come.
Primrose Path is released on Friday 18th October through UNFD