Reification is a progressive death metal band from Zagreb, founded in 2019. In the beginning, they played crust punk, and in 2024, the guys sealed the prog death style and started working on an album. Their main influences are rock icons like King Crimson and Pink Floyd, and metal legends like Opeth, Cynic and Gojira.
Reification consists of Fran Radonić Mayr on vocals and guitar, Marko Pancirov on drums, David Martić on bass and Marko Dobrinić on guitar, and former bassist Damjan Francetić and associate Mario Švenda also participate in the composition of the songs.
“Dreary” is the first single with which the guys announce the album. It is a compositionally ambitious 6-and-a-half-minute song with a very dark, almost black metal atmosphere. The single begins with gloomy dissonant riffs that slowly colour the emotion of the song and continues with a much faster progressive story that maintains the initial unease with the haunting growls of Fran Radonić Mayr. Marko Pancirov on drums greatly contributes to the energy of the song with his virtuoso work on the toms, and the bass and second guitars add extraordinary thickness to the whole story.
This fast middle part is abruptly interrupted by an acoustic section, which, as the song goes on, seems to be eaten away by an infection from which emotional screams erupt, all the while ending in a painful bass guitar solo. The song is accompanied by a very cryptic socially engaged text about the ubiquitous state of alienation that befalls us in late capitalism. There is a strong class perspective and philosophical terminology.
If you like progressive death with the cruelty and social commitment of crust punk – I don’t know how it’s connected, but the guys succeeded – take the time to listen to Dreary!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5dsgq5nyD0&list=RDC5dsgq5nyD0&start_radio=1
Photo: Ana Marija Kostanić
