The Dreaming - Puppet

Frontman Christopher Hall was known as his major popularity role of fronting his former project Stabbing Westward who disbanded in 2002. Soon after Hall had already begun work on an all new project The Dreaming. A year later the band had written and record material done various shows all of which would later be released in not one but four EP’s and later lead up to their debut LP “Etched In Blood” (2008). Since the band has gone on to do an extensive amount of touring playing the infamous Whisky a Go Go an assortment of times. Now its three years later and after a long but well overdue wait time The Dreaming have indeed released the follow-up to that release, entitled “Puppet”.

Distortion, chorus structure, anthem chants, roaring guitars, with blast beating drum rhythms really is what describes The Dreaming's The Dreaming’s entire new album. The title track, "Every Trace", "There Will Be Blood", "It's No Good", and "Solo Crucifixion" are all songs that indeed taken The Dreaming's musical abilities to a whole another level of creativity. Hall told Revolver Magazine the differences he saw between this release and his last efforts, "I felt our last album strayed away from the sound we originally set out to make. This was a combination of influences from our producer, mixer, manager and newer members of the band. I really liked our first record but I feel like Puppet better captures the vision [drummer] Johnny Haro and I originally had.

We set out to make music that was heavy and dark but very melodic with strong songs. We really wanted to recapture some of the electronic sounds that were a part of Stabbing Westward and Econoline Crush that seemed to get lost on the first Dreaming album.

So my goal on this record was to learn everything I could about producing and engineering, so I could maintain creative control over the album and not let too many outsiders get involved. The one outsider who really helped was Eddie Wohl who mixed the record. He helped make my production work sound polished and helped shape the overall sound of the record in the mix. We had several members come and go during the recording process and each of them left their mark on the songs in different ways. It was a very long record to make due to my learning curve on how to record and produce, but I think it was worth it in the end."

With this said, “Puppet”, is an achievement in an assortment of ways it takes a step forward rather than back igniting a reality that Hall and the rest of his band mates saw possible and will now see totally fit.