Dream Widow is apparently supposed to be a death metal project by Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters. It came out the day before Taylor Hawkins died, so while I downloaded it that day I didn’t listen until a few days later. It rocks!
Death metal isn’t my favourite metal genre. I’m a bit old school and prefer Motley Crue, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy Osbourne. I do have an Austrian death metal album downloaded, but mainly for the first song. I’ve listened to various Slipknot songs, but I don’t like them overall. I don’t know if Slipknot is supposed to be death metal.
I have listened to most of the album several times.
Choosing my favourite song wasn’t easy, as I like all of them, but undoubtedly Come All Ye Unfaithful is it. It has a great start, epic powerchords, and while death metal lyrics are not easy to hear most of the time, the rolling chorus and screaming main line of “COME!!! All Ye Unfaithful!” is great to me. Then at the end it finishes and there’s this empty corridor sound and then a creepy musical zip.
Cold is the song that I first heard when I read that Dream Widow was a thing on the Foo Fighters Twitter account. The teaser clip for the album plays the part where Dave sings “I don’t wanna wake up.” Thinking about that in the context of Taylor’s death weighed heavily on my early listens to the album. You can easily understand the lyrics, it has a strong start-stop beat, this zombie-like low voice, the rolling chorus of whatever thing is cold.
The Sweet Abyss is a fast-slow song with sharp creepy voices, with my favourite line “How has it come to this? Falling into the Sweet Abyss.” The verses are fast, and then the chorus slow.
Some of the songs feel repetitive and long, but that probably comes from listening to them too much. When you’re excited about listening to it, it’s too short.
March of the Insane is faster than The Sweet Abyss, has a great rolling heavy-sounding part that I love, and the song reminds me a lot of Black Sabbath, especially Children of the Grave with the high-sounding stop. Afterwards is a creepy breathing sound.
Angel With Severed Wings is fast, but maybe not as fast as March of the Insane. You can hear the lyrics better with that zombie-like voice, and when Dave sings the phrase that is the title of the song it coincides with him screaming it and that makes for an awesome sound.
The songs that I specifically choose to listen to are Cold and Come All Ye Unfaithful.
Becoming is a slow starting song with a slowly changing guitar riff and creepy voices that you can’t hear clearly. Then there’s this screaming and rapid strumming (or whatever you would call it). Then there’s a rolling hard beat of drums. Then the lyrics start. “Feel your wrath pulsing through. Life and death becoming you.” Then a heavy rapid strumming, then the song really starts with zombie-like singing. It’s probably one of those songs that grows on you. It is the second longest song, and I just noticed that the songs get longer as the album goes on, the only exception being Cold which is second in order.
Lacrimus dei Ebrius is an even slower starting song. It starts with white noise like a guitar has been left on the ground. It gets louder with occasional chords. Then the song starts and primarily features a back and forth from rapid riffs and beats to slow heavy power chords and beats. It also has this repetitive heavy rock beat that I love. Then the back and forth some more, some quiet acoustic guitar, and finishing with some back and forth again.
My least favourite song is Encino. It is very death metal with rapid chords, beats, and screaming. Then rising powerchords, beats, and screaming. It doesn’t do it for me, so good thing it is very short.
Overall, I loved the album and I don’t dislike any particular song. In the wake of Taylor Hawkins’ death and my multiple playthroughs of this album, I have wondered if there could be more Dream Widow albums. It is hard to say. Dave Grohl loves metal, and this band could be his outlet for it. Whether he imagines a future where Foo Fighters play Dream Widow without Taylor Hawkins, and imagines that future as being a positive experience would be the key influence in its future.
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