Born out of the elemental primordium contained in heavy metal’s working class roots, from the war-scarred industrial landscapes of Birmingham to the beat up bars and basements of Brooklyn, Neon Nightmare arrive like a ghost in the night to carry on the tradition. Troubled music for troubled people. And though there’s nothing new under the sun, in the shadows there may yet be a chance, and it is in the shadows where ‘Faded Dream’ was shaped out of shimmering steel.
The title says it all, with ‘Faded Dream’ Neon Nightmare’s debut album is a synthesis of emotional peaks and valleys and dark brooding atmosphere, evoking a longing angst for a past once colored by adolescent excitement and wonder. Utilizing a foundation of big riffs, crushing studio production immersed in technicolor fantasy and psychedelic ornamentation, and a dramatic vocalist able to smoothly swing from a spooky gothic baritone to soaring heavy metal melodicism, ‘Faded Dream’ is the crossroads where Doom, Psych, Shoegaze and Alternative Metal all intersect in a way not heard in years.
A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it but unmistakable deadpan satirical strain also runs through ‘Faded Dream’ as Neon Nightmare cleverly avoid the overtly sad-sack whimsy and self-serious mopery of the standard “metal band with goth tendencies” milieu. For all its genuine foreboding and confrontation with real depression, ‘Faded Dream’ never loses itself in the mire or gives up on its predilection for thrill-seeking amusements and sanguine fascination. The sounds conjured have lived in many momentous forms throughout the decades of heavy metal history, and Neon Nightmare are here to continue the cycle.
