Sentiment Dissolve The Orwellian Dream

First impressions are everything, especially when you vie for attention in an age where almost no one has it, and I very much include myself in that critique. If your shit isn’t hitting from the jump, I’m likely to move on quick. Blame whatever you want - technology, upbringing, the cataclysmic decline of society that erodes our mental capacities - but regardless it just makes the stuff that sticks that much more valuable.

Sometimes you see album art or hear a song from a band you’ve never heard before and feel invested. Such was the case for Ontario tech death newcomers Sentiment Dissolve when I heard their song “Forced Birther” and saw their ornately hellish art for their debut album, The Orwellian Dream.

“Forced Birther” is quite an opener. Channeling the likes of Cannibal Corpse’s “The Wretched Spawn” or Cattle Decapitation’s “Forced Gender Reassignment”, it subverts by enacting a power fantasy where regressive pro-lifers get a taste of their own medicine with a vengeance-fueled “clandestine cult of baronesses” forcefully implanting them with a womb to be eaten from the inside slowly by their own mutant creation. Some will find it heavy-handed in the messaging, but I fuck with it, though I’ll admit I laughed when I got to the line “fully incapacitated and his dick is raaaaaaw”.

The instrumentation is fiercely technical, more derived from a place of angular artistry than some obtuse mathematical theorem shit, with some slam thrown in for good measure (note the “bree”-styled vocals to accent particularly brutal moments). For as good as “Forced Birther” is, it’s just one of a handful of interesting moments on this five-track album. “Totalitarian Doctrine” is much shorter than the former track, yet its progressions make it more fully realized. I love the open calm of the clean instrumentation near the end, allowing you to bask in something more ethereal to break from the album’s more heady themes and stark, dystopian tones.
 

The melody gets ratcheted up a couple notches with “Transcending the Hierarchy of Knowledge” which sets the fretboards on fire - this shit must have the guitarists’ hands looking like Naruto ninjutsu techniques to get this done. The drumming complements the guitars with crispy snare strikes and neat variations that any footwork aficionado will appreciate. “Omnipotent Panopticon” is the most ominous track on The Orwellian Dream, capitalizing on its placement by building anticipation with a shrouded intro and a tech explosion of riffs and vocals soon after. The lyrics hit much harder when you factor in real-world hells happening the world over in Palestine and the Congo:

“All our families are wiped clean of history
Should you speak of their existence all who hear shall follow quickly
They cut the tongues of the dissenters
And watch their voices run thin
Like a granite satellite they watch and paralyze free will
Righteousness brought up in disingenuity
Product of the propaganda and an ego starved mind
Eradication of the bloodline of all the different
Eradicating all the fire that fuels divergent action
Eradication until we are still
State sanctioned massacre at will”
 

There’s nothing major holding The Orwellian Dream back from well-earned praise. Gun to my head, I’d say the vocals aren’t inspiring, but they are serviceable. It’s a varied project - maybe a bit too varied for some - that goes a lot of different places and the fact that it’s a debut for the band should be a point of pride for them. To be fair though, these aren’t complete newcomers. Sentiment Dissolve’s members have worked with bands like Aepoch, Kavara, and Hell is Other People to get their chops up and it shows. This is years of honed skill and technique on display, making for a nice surprise in the middle of an already busy year.

Bottom Line: For progressive/technical metal, this is a very economical release. It’s like Sentiment Dissolve at the very least have something much of the rest of the genre doesn't: restraint. That will take them far along with their astute musicianship and primo presentation and production that doesn’t feel at odds with the space they occupy, yet convincingly elevates them above the mid tier. It’s just good - sometimes that’s all you have to be. No ridiculous setting of expectations or overextending, merely an appreciation of the music. I’m interested to see where these dudes go from there.