Dredg - Leitmotif

Leitmotif, Dredg's first full album is interesting in its contrast from their two subsequent releases; El Cielo and Catch Without Arms. Those two sound very different in some ways, but also have a lot in common, especially the emphasis on tight compositions and vocal-heavy songs. Leitmotif, on the other hand is highly meandering and instrumental. Despite the running time over 50 minutes, there are only five or so real songs. Half of the tracks are continuations of previous songs featuring some extended rocking. The final track is 20 minutes long, including several minutes of silence followed by a very lo-fi jam session accompanied by a lot of electronic beeps and scratches. Despite the relative lack of ideas in a similar time span, it doesn't seem out of place in Dredg's discography. It's definitely different, but you can tell it's the same band and how they went from there to evolve into what they are now seems to make sense. Gavin's voice isn't highlighted as much, and the guitar playing is a little more intricate than it tends to be later. It's also noticeably harder than they've usually been since.

My favorite song is the first. It starts with a nice high-pitched guitar riff combined with a hard backbone, and the chorus is an impressive display of intensity. "Lechium" isn't as hard but still technically pretty nice and fun to listen to. As it goes on, the album gets more experimental with strange, distant vocals and some ambient stuff. It changes back to a more standard sound with the only time I think I've heard the vocalist scream in "Penguins in the Desert" (A song title referenced in lyrics on El Cielo), which has a nice contrast between the shouts and a more melodic singing in the verse. After a nice continuing interlude, it builds to "Yatahaze", the last real song. The whole album is written around a short story by the bassist, which is printed in the jacket, broken up by the track names. It's interesting to read along and see how the music matches the tone of the story, and where lines are repeated in the lyrics. Leitmotif doesn't have the same standout, brilliant songs like Dredg's other work, but it's still a very enjoyable and worthwhile album, especially when taken as a whole.