Projects. I was never a big fan of projects, especially if they were the projects of Black Metal musicians. A few years ago every Black Metal musician was almost obliged to be part of a dozen of projects. Since then I always had a carper attitude towards such works. Dreamlike Horror is, in case you haven't figured it out by now, such a project. Created by members of Ancient, it didn't really catch my attention at first sight.
Dreamlike Horror formed back in 1999 by Deadly Kristin and Aphazel. Soon they became Deadly Kristin's main band, a vessel to face her psychological problems et. (as the promo's biography mentions). The songs included in this first album were actually composed during two different time periods. Some of the songs belong to a promo CD the band released back in 2000 while the rest are compositions crafted in late 2004 - early 2005.
So what's up with the music of Dreamlike Horror? Well, forget pretty much what you knew about Ancient and avoid any stupid comparisons between these two bands. Dreamlike Horror is an atmosphere based / soundtrack like type of band that composes some good haunting tunes. And maybe this is not the spookiest album ever (this has also something to do with the production that could have been better) but indeed the band manages to create atmosphere up to a high level.
I don't know if Metal fans could appreciate such a piece of work but I always welcome such attempts from musicians known for a certain genre trying to get out of the loop.