Vicky
Errata before even starting this article: I got lost somewhere around the presence of bonus tracks and regular songs, so there might be a few errors in my review. The band we’re talking about today is Gloombound, from Norway. But, lucky for you, I’m not in the mood to discuss the endless stream of “trve”-ness that comes from their homeland again. Let’s keep things short, simple, and lovely.
So, according to my research, Gloombound was founded around 2022 in Oslo, and it has only one other release besides this album. That’s a demo released in 2023, called Astral Exhalation. The band is composed of five very talented people (of a feminine, a masculine, and a non-binary gender). Encyclopaedia Metallum provides us with the information that the vocalists of Gloombound are Mina Halvorsen (she is also a drummer), and Emma Sønstebø (they are also playing bass in the band). Dreaming Delusion was released independently, and digitally, back in July 2025. Now, however, it gets a physical release from Gruesome Records, and the bonus tracks that confused me at first are actually songs taken off Astral Exhalation. Now that we know a little bit more about the group, let’s see what the deal is with Dreaming Delusion.
The band plays Funeral Doom Metal. And I mean the Funeral Doom that has elongated/posh song titles, acoustic guitars, scorching growls, Thrash-like riffs (imagine My Dying Bride’s As The Flower Withers placed into a different era), often melodic/atmospheric passages, etc. Vocal-wise, Gloombound uses a lot of different techniques, ranging from your usual Death Metal-esque growls, all the way to a variant of pig squeals, Black Metal shrieks, and even some sort of banshee cries. Honestly, the duet between the shrieks and the banshee cries sounds remarkable and I am extremely thrilled that someone has finally thought to implement that in a Funeral Doom Metal song. Speaking of which, the track to feature this unique sound is the fourth one off Dreaming Delusion, and it’s called “Luminary Dissolution” (just wait for minute 3 to start, you’ll never be able to fully recover from that experience).
If you haven’t listened to Dreaming Delusion just yet, I think you might want to start with the second track, “An Eternity of Complete Acquiescence” (try saying that five times fast), meanwhile Astral Exhalation is best represented by the song “Pulled Towards Sepulchre Slumber”. Just listening to these tracks alone will take you about 15 minutes, so if you decide to continue your journey through the vast plains of Funeral Doom with Dreaming Delusion and/or Astral Exhalation, you will need patience and determination. The band can take it from there.
Even though, as I have said, the songs are long (eight minutes or higher, except for two tracks), I think that the song “Salvation”, off Dreaming Delusion, is an underrated gem. It’s only two minutes long , instrumental, and acoustic, but it definitely shows the value of the band’s instrumentalists. All things considered, Dreaming Delusion can actually make you delusional, but certainly in a good way (I hope!). Gloombound might get the chance to bring ancient Black/Doom Metal back to life.
Label: Gruesome Records
Release date: November 21, 2025
Website (the funeral dirge-infused Bandcamp): https://gloomboundband.bandcamp.com/
Country: Norway
Score: 3.8/5.0
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