Death-doom project Dream Unending expand into spacious, cosmic compositions on the sprawling Certain Uncertainties.
Release date: October 30, 2026 | 20 Buck Spin | Bandcamp | Instagram
I was introduced to Dream Unending, the project of Tomb Mold’s Derrick Vella and Magic Circle‘s Justin DeTore, by my good friend McKenna Rae, a singer in several thousand Canadian symphonic metal bands. She did a few guest vocal spots on Dream Unending’s albums Tide Turns Eternal and Song of Salvation, and after listening to her tracks, I fell in love with the duo’s melodic-yet-experimental take on death-doom.
Certain Uncertainties, their first album since 2023’s split with Worm called Starpath, expands even further upon their cosmic approach, and the resulting record is a masterclass in blending textures while still retaining a cohesive throughline and eliminating every ounce of extraneous bloat.
We open with “Blinding Allure”, one of Certain Uncertainties‘ many magnum opuses to cross the seven-minute mark. If you’re unfamiliar with this particular take on death-doom, a good reference point is this track; Vella’s guitars oscillate between beautiful fingerpicking and Django Reinhardt jazz before spiraling into full-throttle doom metal, and DeTore’s signature cavernous guttural growls soar beneath them like some sort of demonic backing choir, both the focal point of the track and a background texture.
And then: the title track, five or so minutes of instrumental bliss reminiscent of one of the lighter Akira Yamaoka soundtrack pieces, perhaps off Silent Hill 3. There’s even a neo-noir trumpet for good measure. Anywhere else it would be jarring, but Dream Unending have an uncanny knack for moving between genres with ease, likely due to the album’s stripped-down production and almost singular focus on Vella’s guitar solos.
The album’s sole single “Strained Sincerity” is Certain Uncertainties’ most direct approach to death-doom, opening with a fat riff worthy of a proper stank face. DeTore shines on this track, his vocals providing an air of profound intensity while still keeping the general atmospheric nature of the track. It’s a clever choice for the single, something fans of more mainstream groups like Katatonia will likely enjoy before getting the one-two jazz punch.
“Rubato” feels a bit like Dream Unending’s submission to replace Angelo Badalamenti in the all-but-certain Twin Peaks reboot that we’ll have to contend with in the next decade. That’s a good thing, though; the master of off-kilter jazz left his mark on this album in a few places to great effect. The moody cybernoir synths and subdued drumming provide a great backdrop for the real star of the show, Vella’s virtuosic guitar playing.
The monumental album closer “Casual” is the culmination of all the disparate parts of Certain Uncertainties. Each twist and turn has led to here, a massive-sounding track that still shows a mark of true musicianship: restraint. It’s nearly twelve minutes of hypnotic, often psychedelic, semi-improvisational playing interspersed with moments of uncomfortable ferocity. It’s like watching Phish play to a crowd of aliens who are also really into Anathema. Just hear me out on that one.
There’s a lot of Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere on this record, but I’ll be honest—I think Dream Unending are doing Blood Incantation better than Blood Incantation right now. I am aware that that’s a touch blasphemous, but I genuinely believe that the complexity of the compositions in Dream Unending’s album outpaces their contemporaries.
The melding of different guitar tones, from classical to clean to heavy distortion, and the building of immersive soundscapes around these differing approaches suggests to me that Dream Unending have an expertise in their writing that involving both harmony and contrast. Absolute Elsewhere was all about the contrast, the sonic equivalent of switching the channel, where Certain Uncertainties is the show itself changing shape as it airs.
More impressive even still is that the album does not forgo melody for the sake of ultra-proggy jazz runs. Yes, there are some Rush time signature changes on this record, and most of the tracks are on the long side, but Dream Unending have managed to allow their writing room to breathe while keeping each segment of the song distinct. It’s a hard line to walk, and I think it shows that the duo are maturing creatively as they venture further into their collaborative career together.
