It's hard to put Dreamgrave's music in a one-genre definition. The most obvious outcome would be gothic metal, because these Hungarians initially were a Paradise Lost tribute band. They were initially called "I Despair" named after a Paradise Lost song, but the band obviously felt the need to create an image of their own and changed their name. Let's look at what three years of Dreamgrave, gave us.
I came up with two band names and two record titles after working my way through Dreamgrave's first demo, titled Deadborn Dreams. Album opener "Deadborn Dreams" sounds a lot like A Blueprint of the World-era Enchant. Especially thanks to the high snare drum sound and the extensive use of keyboards. The enchanting keyboards are the strongest part of this album and set the tone pretty well. The snare sound, however, falls short after the first track. The album opener is so much lighter than the remainder of the album and actually doesn't fit in quite well, but then again, this is a demo. Another album that comes to mind is Enter by Within Temptation. Not because this effort here sounds a lot like that album, but because it was my first introduction to the Beauty-and-the-Beast metal genre. The explanation of that genre is simple. The beauty stands for the, almost operatic, vocals from the female vocalist and the beast stands for the grunting from the male vocalist. Talking of which; the female singer is dreadful. Her style is tedious and her voice is limited and even false in certain places. The male vocalist is very convincing however, with his deep and heavy grunting. The sound of the music overall is not good at all. It fails to be dark while the band try really hard to make pitch black music. It tends to get so tedious that even a seasoned doom metal listener would fall asleep half way through. The bass is too far back in the mix and the guitar riffs lack serious power. The guitarist does deliver a marvellous solo on "Everbleeding Heart" though, but that's the only true achievement mentioning about the guitarist, and the main man behind Dreamgrave, Dömötör Gyimesi.
Except for the two excellent tracks, "Deadborn Dreams" and the moody "Autumn", there's nothing really good to write about. This demo isn't convincing due to the lack of diversity, structure and the much needed spark. There is some potential though as keyboardist Zoltán Tamási and – the previously mentioned - Dömötör Gyimesi have proven. The two outstanding tracks I mentioned, prove this.
Track list:
1. Deadborn Dreams
2. Everbleeding Heart
3. Ruins of Glorious Times
4. Dearth Deep Within
5. Autumn
6. Everbleeding Instruments
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