Certain Uncertainties

With their first two albums, Dream Unending transformed the familiar architecture of death doom into a place of their own making, where cavernous heaviness could coexist with progressive rock, ambient music, jazz-informed improvisation and disarming emotional candour.

On Certain Uncertainties, that expression remains intact, but its gaze has shifted. Leaner in construction, rougher around the edges and possessed of a distinctly nocturnal atmosphere, it brings things back down to earth.

Recorded with fewer layers and a more immediate instrumental approach, the album gives the performances room to breathe. Derrick Vella’s guitars move through blues, jazz and progressive vocabulary with unusual freedom, while Justin DeTore’s drumming lends the songs greater momentum and economy. Each piece feels like its own vignette: part desert reverie, part after-hours noir.