“In All My Nightmares I Am Alone” is the latest released by Post Death Soundtrack, an outstanding solo project by Canadian songwriter, composer, and musician Stephen Moore. It’s his fifth full-length album, arriving as an adequate continuation of “Veil Lifter,” “It Will Come Out Of Nowhere,” “The Unlearning Curve,” and “Music As Weaponry,” five excellent albums you should also check out as soon as possible. Still, his latest collection of songs arrives with many innovations in songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing, showcasing the natural progression of an already incredible artist. Lyrically, this album explores various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, so it’s a highly relatable material that will immediately resonate with the broader auditorium. Sonically, Post Death Soundtrack combined various approaches and different but complementary music genres to illustrate such luxuriant sonic imagery. Perhaps darkwave and dark folk come to mind first, but you’ll unquestionably notice how some of the finest properties borrowed from synthwave, industrial, post-punk, goth rock, grunge, trip-hop, various electronic music genres, cinematic, and dark ambient found their way into this sonic equation. Post Death Soundtrack uses all these additional sonic ingredients as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to enhance his music to an entirely new level. His music tackles all these senses thanks to implementing only the finest qualities that meet all the trends in contemporary music production yet there are subtle touches of nostalgia lurking around. Therefore, these experimentations with different approaches and styles resulted in a memorable listening experience that immediately resonates with darkwave and industrial fans and beyond.
With thirty compositions included on this epic sonic journey, Post Death Soundtrack offers something for anyone. There are in-depth explorations in all the mentioned genres yet everything sounds so organized, cohesive, and harmonious. Stephen Moore employs dark ambiance as the main theme yet you’ll never feel its dominant presence. He lets listeners decide how they’ll perceive this material, and that’s a wise move that many musicians and bands overlook. Each composition arrives with a perfect structure, garnered with many profoundly detailed segments, brilliant ideas, and superb orchestrations. Also, every composition carries a distinctive ambiance yet it works to the advantage of the entire material, creating a cohesive whole that will immediately resonate with the listeners. For example, this epic sonic journey commences with a perfect dark ambient overture “Tremens,” empowered with a spoken word. It prepares the listeners for a voyage through the expansive sonic universe worth repeating over and over again. Tracks like “A Monolith Of Alarms,” “Venus In Furs,” “When The World Is Burning Fight,” and “Fast Approaching Radiant Light,” shape the sonic direction of this material with their dark, mysterious, eerie, otherwordly ambiance. The clever usage of rhythmic patterns, wobbly basslines, lush synths, and reverby vocal harmonies decorate every section of these songs, constructing sonic imagery rarely heard or seen nowadays. This material sometimes leans into ambient waters. “Something Stirs” and “We Fall” offer two different approaches to this genre and they both sound charming to the point you’ll immediately spin them again. The incorporation of wisely arranged chord progressions delivered on acoustic guitar makes “Something Stirs” such a unique piece. There’s a touch of dark goth folk included within, and this style suits Stephen Moore well. Songs like “Hypnotizer” and “River Days” carry a similar atmosphere, drenched in more warm, calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal indie melodies and harmonies. The artist knows when to calm things down a little bit, making “In All My Nightmares I Am Alone” such a dynamic full-length album.
Of course, this material leans more toward grungy folk-infused ambiance with “Final Days,” “Reckless Fever,” “Crawling King Snake,” and “God’s Away On Business.” It’s nearly mindblowing how each one of these songs carries a different atmosphere, decorated with subtle or more dominant touches of Americana and country music. The guitar works are impressive, as every chord progression immensely supports Stephen Moore’s soulful, passionate, confident, emotive, powerful vocal performance. The majority of this album follows this dark folk path yet there are also some explorations into the depths of dark ambient and industrial waters. Tracks like “Marrow” and “Control” arrive with expertly layered, heavily distorted soundscapes that will immediately resonate with the industrial music fans. “What Did You Just Call Me” and “I Would Surmise,” “Trigger Finger,” and the title track are also some of the highlights covering those genres. Each one of these explores guides you through the entire barrage of marvelously assembled soundscapes, empowered with Stephen Moore’s sharp lyricism and incredible vocal delivery. The remainder of the album covers dark folk, country, Americana, goth rock, and post-punk territory with such precision and finesse. You’ll stumble upon so many catchy, memorable, engaging themes, melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, intricate low-ends and rhythmic patterns, that you’ll gladly spin “In All My Nightmares I Am Alone” all over again. Post Death Soundtrack is such a unique music outlet. You never know what to expect but the listening experience leaves you speechless and craving more. This album showcases Stephen Moore’s experience, knowledge, creativity, skills, and talent, transformed into brilliant ideas and outstanding orchestrations showcased through thirty excellent songs. It’s a one-of-a-kind wild ride through an expansive sonic universe worth repeating over again. You should immediately place “In All My Nightmares I Am Alone” on your music radar. The album is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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