:: Killing The Dream - Fractures

Killing The Dream

It’s been a long three years between releases for the Northern Californian act Killing The Dream, but they’re finally back with ‘Fractures’, their highly anticipated follow-up to 2005’s critically acclaimed second album ‘In Place Apart’. During that three years, Killing The Dream have undergone a serious line-up change, when guitarists Joel Adams and Bart Mullis parted ways with the band soon after the release of ‘In Place Apart’. Guitarists DJ Rogers and Patrick Guild later joined the group alongside vocalist Elijah Horner, bassist Christopher Chase and drummer Isaac Fratini. Any significant line-up change will signal a change of dynamics, and that’s certainly taken place with Killing The Dream, with their new album showing a slight change of direction from their earlier recordings.

After a short introductory instrumental (‘(Re)acquaintance’), Killing The Dream quickly reaffirm their dedication to fast, violent, gang vocalised hardcore with the Converge like ‘Part II (Motel Art)’. Sounding a little heavier and darker in tone, ‘Part II (Motel Art)’ is a slightly different direction for Killing The Dream, but one that definitely suits them. Compared to the previous track, the title track ‘Fractures’ shows a lot of experimentation with the song divided between catchy, melodic and atmospheric passages and straight out aggression. ‘Thirty Four Seconds’, ‘Holding The Claws’ and ‘Consequence (What Comes Next)’ are based on the same style of song writing. Both ‘Everything But Everything’ and ‘Hang The Jury’ provides the middle of the album with some concise and savage blasts of aggressive hardcore, while Ruiner vocalist Rob Sullivan helps out on the energetic and rocking ‘You’re All Welcome’.
Finishing up the album is the lengthy four and a half minute ‘Resolution’, where the band combines all the different facets that make up their sound into one epic finale.

Unlike ‘In Place Apart’, ‘Fractures’ relies less on breakdowns and huge gang vocals, which means that overall it taken longer to truly appreciate the strength of the numbers on the album. But having said that, ‘Fractures’ is a little more daring in the song writing area, which has allowed the band to broaden their sound. In summary, Killing The Dream have managed to overcome their trials and tribulations of the last three years to emerge with another great hardcore release, and one that looks set to become one of 2008’s stand out hardcore releases.