Standing Stones

Dawnwalker return in 2022 with their fifth album 'House of Sand,' which marks a significant move away from the post and folk metal influences of their last LP 'Ages' for something darker and more difficult to pin down. As pictured on Mitchell Nolte’s cover painting, the album is set against a backdrop of idyllic suburbs and the darkness that may be lurking beneath. References abound to the darker side of the human psyche and a spiritual malaise (the “demon of noontide”) which once contracted gradually destroys all in its path.

“The suburbs dream of violence...”

• J.G. Ballard

Musically, there are touchstones from across the British indie and progressive rock canon -Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Mansun’s 1998 prog opera ‘Six’ to name a few – but these influences are blended with a modern heavy sensibility to create a unique sound all of its own. It might be thought of as something akin to the lovechild of Opeth and Kate Bush. At 43 minutes, it is Dawnwalker’s shortest LP by some distance, but each of these thirteen songs is packed to the brim with inventive ideas which belie their length.

Together with Joe Clayton of No Studio, they wanted to get away from the over produced sound of modern metal and computer-generated artifice. As such, no click tracks or synthesized instruments were used at all on the album. Instead, an ensemble of eight musicians wielding acoustic guitars, piano, violins and four vocalists performed whole takes live in the room, choosing to make a feature of their imperfections rather than airbrush them away. The end result is Dawnwalker’s darkest but most human and affecting album to date.