DREAMARCHER was founded by Kim Christer Hylland and Ruben Aksnes in 2015 with a concept of creating a project that would embrace their idea of songwriting. The name DREAMARCHER set the stage for their music; blending the romanticized, dreamy, ambient and beautiful with the dark, industrial, concrete and hideous. Inspired by their hometown Odda, located at the innermost point of the Hardangerfjord of Norway, their music, artwork and lyrics reflects a small industrial town surrounded by majestic nature, fjords and glaciers. They signed with Indie Recordings in 2016 and released their self-titled debut album in October the same year. Now, they present their sophomore effort, titled "The Bond," which contains eight tracks.

"Coal" leads off the album, with some dissonant tones, and a dark and heavy sound. The vocals are dreamy in nature, and then comes in some fuzziness and harsh vocals. The juxtaposition of the two opposing sounds doesn't really work well for me. "Black Water" opens with calm, soft, and inviting tones, until the main riff hits with some heavy accents. They let some melody sneak in here which is nice, but with harsh vocals at some points, and overall, the track is just...well...weird. "A Fail of Design" brings more of the same. The sound is a little more lively, but still has that same basic pattern of despair combined with anger, this time without the harsh vocals.

"From which we came" opens with a hateful rage of harsh vocals and a guitar riff that combine to make you feel dead inside. After the outburst, the remainder of the song actually flows with some melody, and some Industrial sounds as well, from the steady, galloping drums. "Folgefanna I" is a short instrumental track consisting mostly of noise, but with some charming keys in the mix as well. "The Body" has an old school feeling to it from the opening riff, but those harsh vocals cut across your body like a chainsaw. The keyboard sequence was really odd for me. Not bad, just odd. The harsh vocals return towards the end with some eerie background feedback. "Dominance" opens with some varied forms of noise. The main riff hits and it's a steady and easy rhythm on the open E chord. The screams are anguished and there isn't much melody in the mix here.

"Folgefanna II" closes the album; another short instrumental that uses a harp and other stringed instruments to display a delicate sound, along with some melody. I typically really like "off the beaten path" types of music, but this album just didn't do it for me. I found it quite odd, weird, and lacking enough melody to keep me interested. Some of the chord progressions were just...strange, for lack of a better word, and I am having trouble conjuring up images of their fan base. This was just too much "out there" for most Metalheads to enjoy I believe.