IN DARKEST DREAMS
The Vanishing
Independent
2016
It’s time for a bit of name-dropping, folks. I first met Ricky Puckett at the legendary (and greatly lamented) Cornerstone festival, inside the Asylum tent. We were lounging inside the Goth/Industrial-themed tent, staying out of the glare of the angry ball of sky fire that is the Daystar, and happened to be chatting about what we usually do and such. I mentioned that I was one of the staff writers of the Dead e-zine; he mentioned he used to be the vocalist for the band Obliteration. I mentioned that the Obliteration demo was one of my all-time favorites and was the best part of the Chords Of The Grave collection; he mentioned he vaguely remembered my review of said collection on the Dead ‘Zine. And then, faster than Batman could say, “Martha is my mom’s name, too!”, we were instant besties. Well, okay, maybe not exactly that, but we’ve maintained an ongoing friendship since that summer.
Since then, I have been keeping up with the various projects he’s done, which have been varied. Recently, though, he’s just released a full-length project under the moniker In Darkest Dreams, titled The Vanishing. So, obviously, as soon as it became available for purchase, I snagged a high-quality download from CD Baby and began my first of what turned out to be many passes on my media player.
The album starts off with a kind of dark, Gothic-tinged metal style, which really does set the tone, but doesn’t give away too much. As we progress, you’re enveloped with a doomy death metal hybrid that somehow makes you simultaneously want to whip your head around furiously, yet brood while doing so. It’s kind of like if Type O Negative had a more death metal style going.
The entire album is a solid collection of darker death metal that I find rather appealing. There’s a couple of covers on this: one being R. E. M.’s “Losing My Religion” that’s interesting, and a good rendition of Zao’s “Five Year Winter”. The last track, I should point out, is kind of the odd man out, but not surprising. “The Dreams Of Disillusionment And Pain” is kind of an ambient piece, tossing in elements of industrial, then acoustic, then Gothic doom metal sounds, almost like a Rackets & Drapes intro got mashed together with a My Silent Wake track. If that makes any sense to you. I hope it does, because I’m not really planning on explaining it to you.
Overall, The Vanishing is a great collection of the extreme and dark stuff I know you always crave, by one of Oklahoma’s best kept secrets in the genre. In a perfect world, this guy would be touring along side Cannibal Corpse and Deicide. But we don’t, and if it sounds like I’m shrilling for this release, well…I’m not, but you really should buy multiple copies of this album. It’s all I’m saying.
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