SWEET DREAMS

BTBAM aren’t the first band to explore what happens when we dream. Here are four other albums about the mind’s shadow side

BRUTALITY WILL PREVAIL

Sleep Paralysis EP

The title says it all; the 2011 three-song eP from these Welsh hardcore lads explores the experience of sleep paralysis, particularly in the title track, which perfectly evokes the horror of the sensation with the lyrics, ‘I’m drowning in the sea of the unknown / My hands are tied but my eyes are blind.’

HAKEN

Visions

london-based progressive metallers Haken are keen on concept albums, starting with their 2010 debut, Aquarius, that told a tragic story of a mermaid. For their second album, 2011’s Visions, they tell the story of a young boy who dreams of his own death, and ultimately spends the rest of his life desperately trying to avoid this fate.

CHELSEA WOLFE

Abyss

Chelsea Wolfe’s fourth album includes appearances from Mike Sullivan of Russian Circles and Dan Phillips from True Widow, and explores the condition of sleep paralysis. The gothic cover art recalls Henry Fuseli’s 1971 painting The Nightmare, while the music melds doom and folk to perfectly envision the nocturnal phenomenon.

MYRKUR

mareridt

Danish singer-songwriter Amalie

Bruun was inspired by her horrifying nightmares involving demonic deer and scorpions when making her latest album as Myrkur, 2017’s Mareridt. Therapy made her realise that by writing down her night terrors, she could exorcise them by transforming them into a dark piece of Nordic folk and black metal.