Well, here's a surprise! It appears that Los Angeles continues to be a suitable breeding ground for up-and-coming Metal acts. While bands like SOTHIS, ABYSMAL DAWN, IN THIS MOMENT, and DREAMS OF DAMNATION are already making names for themselves, another band has surfaced from the Metal manufacturing plant. Their name: DREAMING DEAD. Their game: playing the kind of extreme Metal that will have you salivating at the mouth, especially if you are a fan of all elements associated with Thrash, Black and Death Metal. It's really hard to place this band into one specific sub-genre because their music is an amalgamation of several different styles. DREAMING DEAD root themselves primarily in Thrash, Black and Death, but there are traces of Blackened Thrash, Prog, Speed and Scandinavian-styled Death Metal. Obvious influences include CRADLE OF FILTH, DEATH, NAGLFAR, CRYPTOPSY and even ARCH ENEMY and OPETH.

With their debut album, "Within One", DREAMING DEAD - Elizabeth Schall (vocals, guitar), Mike Caffell (drums), Leslie Medina (guitar) and Juan Ramirez (bass) - take the road less traveled and venture into something quite distant from the whole band-cloning syndrome that seems to be plaguing much of the Metal scene these days. Sure, they do bear some likeness to the aforementioned acts, but not so much that they come across as rip-offs. The band's real strength lies in their keen sense of technical precision and ability to express their emotions into music and lyrics. Songs like the killer pair of opener "Stairs Into The Vortex" and "Within One" are just two examples of how well they execute their musical prowess. It takes talent to be able to play fast like this and then make time changes that come across as sensible to the listener. The instrumentation is well laid out and Schall definitely sings like one pissed-off banshee! Great riffing too. Carnage continues with tracks like "Putrid Is The Sky" and "Shadows In The Dark" while "War Machine" and "Manslaughter" offer some temporary relief with sounds very reminiscent of OPETH. Really, there is a lot of variation across the board here.

Debut albums can be a great risk for many bands entering the scene. You never know how well or how bad it will be received by the listening public, but at least in this case the odds are in DREAMING DEAD's favour. Due to its high level of potency, "Within One" has a higher than average chance of winning fans over and giving the band the proper tool to make a good go of it. Debut or not, this is a great album and anyone that appreciates something fresh and inspiring should easily take a liking to it. Metal is meant to be exciting, and that's exactly what this is.