Dreaming Ice

Swedish death metal label Wrong Again Records was, in hindsight, off to an incredible start in releasing formative Swedish melodic death metal releases such as Eucharist‘s ‘A Velvet Creation’ and In Flames ‘Lunar Strain’ but as the label split into two the fates of their lesser known bands would be a 50/50 shot for appropriate representation. The bands that jumped over to War Music (Naglfar, In Thy Dreams, Eucharist) fizzled out before thier time wile the enormous popularity of In Flames carried Regain Records to continual success and recognition. In the midst of all of this two unique melodic death metal bands, that certainly needed some extra amount of care, Excretion and Miscreant fell by the wayside. With Excretion getting some greater respect in 2016 with a limited run double LP featuring their full discography, and Cardinal Sin seeing reissue through Blood Harvest/Helter Skelter this April (2018) only Miscreant remains without reissue or remaster from Wrong Again‘s short run to the top of the Swedish underground.

Formed in 1993 with their first demo recorded in thrash band Rosicrucian‘s studio/rehearsal space Miscreant were perhaps too ambitious for their own good in the rush to join the ranks of bigger bands outside of Västerås, a city that sits triangulated roughly in the middle of Stockholm, Örebro, and Uppsala. Their style combined the jagged rhythms and slower pace of Eucharist with the quasi-blackened snarl of A Canorous Quintet but rarely outclassed either. The great strength to be found on ‘Dreaming Ice’ is in the wandering, progressive compositions that highlight several of their longer and most ambitious pieces (“Forever Not to Be”) that should recall a melodic death version of Dawn‘s increasing surety as they approached their later releases.

With some greater patience and perhaps a great admiration for the inherent duality expressed within ‘With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness’ Miscreant did eventually reveal the beginnings of something special with their debut full-length. What is likely the most troublesome point as far as marketability to Swedish metalheads at the time was the sluggish, doom-like pacing they’d pulled in from their demo days as Epitaph (not the one that released ‘Seeming Salvation’). Thanks to Daniel Ekeroth we have a reasonable document of how these bands formed and existed but not necessarily why they ultimately dissolved. It seems they’d simply lost interest or didn’t survive the dissolution of their label and most members would be involved in Powerage, a band that would go on to become semi-popular power metal band Axenstar though all Miscreant members would drop off by 2006.

I’ve always admired the sort of twisted, almost discordant style of guitar riffs that Miscreant used to de-typify their sound and make ‘Dreaming Ice’ distinct from the melodic death/doom of somewhat similar Swedes like Internal Decay and Infernal Gates who were perhaps further from early At the Gates and closer to Katatonia. Miscreant is no less melodically valuable, though, and I think that is why it is frustrating that it hasn’t received any recreation or reissue since release. It is the sort of awkward but beautiful gem that fans of old school melodic death metal don’t necessarily have access to and anyone who has warm feelings for ‘With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness’, early Eucharist, and even the weirdness of early Dark Tranquillity should find familiar-yet-distorted solace in the rhythms of ‘Dreaming Ice’, but also a hint of the accessibility of Peaceville‘s melodic death/doom giants.

Fair warning though, it is a full hour long and while they do mix up pacing and guitar sounds, long stretches of Miscreant‘s opus are overworked, scratched-out, and mid-paced wanderlust. This characteristic actually stands out quite a bit in the realm of Swedish melodeath guitar work generally speaking. It is the sort of album to sit back and let unravel before you, rather than deeply focused listening and I highly recommend it. Though it isn’t available from any reputable place it isn’t such an obscurity that a decent rip or YouTube stream will be hard to find.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2018/06/19/retro-tuesdays-miscreant-dreaming-ice-1994/

Have you ever heard the song "Kill Again" off Slayer's album Hell Awaits? Listen at around 1:15 of said song, and you'll hear what very likely was the first instance (Albeit a primitive one) of the archetypal "melodeath" riff. You know, that "Chug on the E or the A string and hit a note on the adjacent string" kind of riff? If you've listened to metal at all, you've likely heard it at some point. This riffing style has existed for over twenty years, and with all the recent melodeath and metalcore bands that have surfaced (Some of which don't fall into the generalizations I might give), it's been used so often that it seems to be the same riff getting played over and over again. The same goes for the stereotypical "slow paced tremolo melody". It would almost be impossible to fathom such relentlessly uninspired music had it's base in bands that took the sound of death metal at the time, added elements from hard rock and traditional metal, clean sections, many styles of vocals, and even deviated from those two styles of riffing because, shockingly, that may become boring over time! Miscreant is a shining example of such a band.

Miscreant plays a style of melodic death metal most similar to Gates of Ishtar or perhaps Godgory. Though, all of said bands are unique in their own way, so the comparison is to be taken with some caution. They involve all the elements previously mentioned, and do them in a way that is so perfectly executed, it is a shame this band is not as well known and that this album spent almost a year languishing on my hard drive before I ever gave it a listen. Of the two riffing styles stereotypical of melodeath I expounded upon earlier, this band plays the "slower tremolo melodies" the most. However, they are wonderfully expressive and emotional, bringing to mind a touch of black metal influence. The band is ill content to stay in one single direction, even within the same minute of a song, changing to a clean section and changing the vocal style (completely unlike the one just being used, even) at the drop of a hat. And let's discuss Johnny Wranning's talent as a vocalist for a moment. I don't think I've heard as versatile a vocalist as him in the realm of extreme metal, save for Chalky White of Psycroptic. The man can do black metal rasps, death growls similar to the average Swedish growler of the time, clean vocals, and a DEAD ON King Diamond falsetto! He fits the music perfectly, with both his choice of style and his placement in the mix.

The whole record is produced fairly well. All instruments seem to be at even levels, though the clean guitars have a tendency of sounding just a bit too bass heavy at times. Not an issue, though. The leads tend to dabble in the neo-classical domain at times, with a clear crisp sound and perfectly tasteful restraint added so as not to devolve into a Malmsteen-esque wank fest (Not to say there's anything wrong with such a thing, but the time it's appropriate is when one actually listens to Yngwie!). Keyboards are used sparsely and mainly to add a sense of atmosphere to the music, such as the introduction of "Inside The Sadness Part II". I'd dare call this progressive metal should there have been fewer elements of melodeath present in the sound.

This album is for anyone interested in melodeath as only the Swedes of the early 90s seemed to be able to craft.