Dreadnought in the Pond — 0=1 (2021)

Ternopil psychedelic band has presented a debut full-format album "0=1". What awaits us in the matter of sound and which senses are hidden in this release – Eva Nikolaieva discovers.

Keeping it low with "On the Bottom", being a butterfly in one`s head with "Like Butterflies", winning out broken rhythms in "The Battle", being a hero (with "Hero") and then finding "Enlightenment", to get back to where you started, but renewed. That`s what Dreadnought in the Pond, a psychedelic/grunge/stoner trio from Ternopil, treats us with this month. No easy message which I`m going to decipher though.

Dreadnought in the Pond · 0=1

First time I heard Dreadnought in the Pond was at Winter Mass VII, where they literally brought me back to life. I got so far as to leave for the festival having terrible fever and, honestly, I doubted my survival that evening. However, having heard a couple of tracks, with Dreadnought in the Pond starting the gig, I was greeting my friends and acquaintances I met at the festival. Would be fair to say that I grew so friendly "after a couple of songs and glasses of becherovka", but I think my precautionary mini-alcohol odyssey did not show as much as the psychedelic suites and their reviving effect.

This time the ideas of revival and rebirth, which in my personal narrative are related to the music of the Ternopil trio, underpin the concept of their first full-length album "0 = 1". This formula in the title of the release is difficult to explain if we only look at it from the perspective of mathematics, while ignoring its philosophic concept. "One" is a life experience, a path from "nothing" to "something", from the unknown to the known, a monostory in itself.

If we interpret zero on the cover from the same symbolic perspective, we will see that a zero is not a zero, but a circle. It is the circle of eternal history repeating itself since the Creation of Mankind, only slightly changing the scenery. It is a circle of journey, one takes inside oneself, in search of the key to one's own consciousness. This concept of monomyth ("Hero`s Journey") is at the core of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell – a philosophical and psychological work, around which the plot of the band's debut release is built.

Musically, "0 = 1" sounds like The Mars Volta, who decided to play stoner and finally found a decent vocalist. Or like The Doors and Soundgarden, playing mathmetal and recording a split, with "0 = 1" being a pledge of their union. However, it is difficult to pigeonhole Dreadnought in the Pond into some narrow genre boundaries. Each band member`s differemt musical backgrounds manifest themselves. It`s a Beatles-like situation, whose eclecticism is the most fertile soil for creativity.

"0 = 1" is a solid work, although you don't have to listen to all the songs in a row, you can do it randomly. The guys are constantly experimenting with rhythmic, with the vocals go from cleans to growls, with the guitar noisy licks creating a truly schizophrenic atmosphere. So, if you are planning an all-family listen – watch out there. There are riffs in "0 = 1" asking to be ringtones in my phone, as well as cacophonous pieces (the Mars Volta-like), befriending you to death. Despite this genre looseness and solid sound, I found listening to Dreadnought in the Pond's debut work a little less interesting than their live session "Math is Everything", with the latter being more saturated with shades of sadness and aggression, as well as having a more raw sound. However, this is only one of the turns of monohistory, and I'm curious to see the next one in store and what it will be like.

The opinions expressed in the reviews convey the views of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the position of Neformat.com.ua

Dreadnought in the Pond — is a Ternopil stoner band, formed in 2011. Their discography is one EP, one full-format, two singles and a live-session. During its activity, the band managed to perform on one scene with Elder, Greenleaf, Talbot, Stoned Jesus, Somali Yacht Club, Soom and to play on Gogol Fest, Robustfest, Respublica, Electric Meadow, Winter Mass.

Among their influences are: The Doors, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo, Nick Cave, Lighting Bolt, Primus and Mars Volta.

Dreadnought in the Pond in social networks:

https://the-dreadnought.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thedreadnought.band https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAp1HYUgvQetyPJn949CPhQ