If Jouhou is the transition of Discordance Axis from a decent grindcore band to a great one, The Inalienable Dreamless is Discordance Axis perfected. All the experimentation that was present on Jouhou is fully fleshed out on DA's third and final album, to the point where they've pretty much abandoned all of the most boring conventions of grindcore, and instead use dissonant guitar chords and oddly shifting rhythms (which made Jouhou stand out) to define their entire sound. Take the song A Leaden Stride to Nowhere for example, the song is 4 minutes long (that's about four times longer than the average DA song) and it moves forward in this weird off-tempo march with sustained dissonant chords blaring over the cymbal and kick drum hits. This is something that doesn't really fit with anything the band did on Jouhou, but even so, the song is totally recognizable as DA because of the unique sound they crafted.
I think that one of the biggest changes sonically between Jouhou and Dreamless is Rob Marton's guitar chops. Yes, Dave Witte is still destroying his drum kit with complicated tempos and rolls, and Jon Chang's lyrics are still as poetic and engaging as ever (although being unintelligible, they won't affect you until you read them). But Marton really stepped up his game on Dreamless, writing some absolutely incredible dissonant riffs that follow Witte's crazy drumming patterns perfectly. The guitar slides on The End of Rebirth, and the steady build on the last half of Jigsaw make for some of the more memorable portions of the album. Most grindcore bands sacrifice any sort of beauty or melody in their riffs for straight-forward aggression, but Dreamless combines the two rivalling ideas effortlessly, specifically through Marton's incredible guitar work. That's why Dreamless is probably the only grindcore album to have ever been covered entirely with a violin, because it's a transformation that actually works.
In addition to having matured in song-writing capabilities, Dreamless boasts a much better production quality than it's predecessors, which is fantastic for a band as technically complex as DA. No longer do Chang's croaking growls sound like the muffled guttural ramblings of Jouhou. And Marton's super tight guitar riffs are no longer playing distantly in the background, instead every incredible atonal chord is being played right in your face. But the sound isn't too polished either, it still has the frenetic energy and chaos of a live show, it's just the earplugs that are gone.
The reason why I love The Inalienable Dreamless so much really boils down to the fact that although it's a technically complex album and just as heavy as any other grindcore album, it's also packed with more feeling and passion than any other grindcore record I've heard. This is an astonishing album, and without a doubt one of the greatest of its genre. It's a must-listen for anyone interested in grind.
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