BEDSORE are a progressive Heavy Metal band hailing from Rome, Italy. “Dreaming The Strife For Love”, released by 20 Buck Spin, represents the band’s second and newest full-length, the follow-up to 2020’s “Hypnagogic Hallucinations”. BEDSORE came armed with a cadre of instruments for “Dreaming The Strife For Love”, including classical guitars, fretless bass, organs, mellotrons, keyboards, synthesizers and 12-string guitars. With six songs clocking in at a total of 46 minutes, these long-form tracks are packed with studious instrumentation, excellent narrative-style composition and technical chops. With so many instruments and so much various tonality, BEDSORE craft highly unique and creative songs, devoid of common ‘verse / chorus / verse’ structuring, instead opting for an almost cinematic approach to the record. To call this progressive Death Metal would be a stretch. It leans into the genre on many parts of the record, but lacks the common traits of modern or old school Death Metal. The progressive nature at hand here is more akin to pre-1971 PINK FLOYD, with the staggering amount of ambience, atmospherics and heavy deployment of keyboard elements. Opening the record is ‘Minerva’s Obilesque’, a clever intro track that utilizes a stark and crashing four-chord motif that appears throughout the song and sets the tone for the composition that composes most of the album. The ambience here is rich and dense, with lightly distorted guitars, smooth fretless bass and beautiful keyboard work. The first taste of actual conventional Heavy Metal doesn’t appear until deep into the second track, ‘Scars Of Light’, with shouted-style vocals and chaotic composing, layer after layer of instrumentation absolutely buries the listener in a sonic fog. ‘A Colossus, An Elephant, A Winged Horse, The Dragon Rendezvous’ follows suite with an extended, almost-jam band style introductory segment of gorgeous guitar work and crisp keyboard playing. ‘Realm Of Eleuterillide’ features some of the heaviest work on the entire record, with blast beats and a constant formless and changing sonic structure. ‘Fanfare For A Heartfelt Love’ features powerful and massive sounding church organ in its introduction, with a chord sequence that reminds the listener, to an extent, of Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Toccata And Fugue in D Minor, BMV 565’. A sharp and concise analog synthesizer melody creates a flowing texture to the later part of the song, playing out like vintage 1970s Prog Rock. ‘Fountain Of Venus’, the closing track on the album, plays much like ‘Fanfare For A Heartfelt Love’, with more clever organ work and punishing heavy moments. This is certainly an odd album for the 2024 Metal scene, few bands have made an effort to experiment with this style and even fewer have been successful. The Progressive Rock sensibilities combined with expert understanding of music theory and an appreciation for both suffocating and atmospheric Heavy Metal with Death Metal leanings really creates a unique gem that doesn’t fit so well into any particular genre. Fans of everything from PINK FLOYD to YES, ARCTURUS to OPETH and MORBUS CHRON to BLOOD INCANTATION need to take note of “Dreaming The Strife For Love”, as its realized potential makes it a powerhouse listen for anybody not afraid of experimentation or genuinely heartfelt throw-back material dating back to the 1970s. A creative risk was taken here and from it came a surprisingly refreshing album that only comes around once in a great while. For more information on BEDSORE, check out www.facebook.com/bedsoredeath and for additional information on 20 Buck Spin, see www.facebook.com/20buckspin