21. February 2025
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Media Review

Slope – Freak Dreams

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Slope - Freak Dreams

Slope - Freak Dreams
4.1

Rating

 4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Interesting but working blend of hip hop and metal
  • Fluent listen

Slope are doing a quite rare mix of metal, hip hop and electronic sounds. The band developed their style during their band history and share their latest stage of that development on 2nd February 2024. I have been provided with their album Freak Dreams before its release and share my thoughts with you.

 

Slope – About The Artists

The list of releases by the Duisburg band slope starts with the 2014 EP Helix. The German band took a couple of years and some more EPs before they released Street Heat, their debut album, in 2021. The band consists of the two vocalists Simon Blümel and Fabio Krautner, guitarist Philipp Jeske, bassist Florian Fehrmann and drummer Patrick Schulten.

 

Slope – Freak Dreams – Track by Track

The twelve song album lasts 35 minutes.

1. Talk Big

Talk Big is one of two songs of the album, which are longer than four minutes. Most of the time, the song feels like a typical hip hop track. However, here are there, there are special sprinkles in the sound, like a rock explosion or a folk-alike coda. Let’s see what the eleven songs thereafter are presenting.

2. It’s Tickin’

It’s Tickin’ is one of the feature singles – and it is likely much more characteristic for the fusion sound of the band. You simply rarely listen to smashing guitar riffs while the vocalist is doing the recitative sound of a hip hop song. There are also rather groovy and laid back parts of this track, which surprisingly fluently integrate into the overall track.

3. Chasing Highs

The rather short 2:10 minute long Chasing Highs opens with a cool pass theme, before the song is finally exploding. I feel that this third song is more extreme in any regard than the predecessor. The guitars are strumming harder riffs, while the vocal part also feels a more aggressive. The blend of music feels surprisingly harmonic again.

4. Nosedive

This time Slope are going for a metal-alike chorus. The verses have a lot of speed and power. Here and there, the instruments are having their show time as well. Especially the groovy bassy solo is a nice listen. The song develops towards an energetic climax and closes with some sing-a-long quality.

5. Hectic Life

Hectic Life is less than two minutes. Nonetheless, the fifth track of Freak Dreams dares to invest some half a minute into an intro part, before the song turns into one of the fastest and most powerful listens of the album.

6. It’s always you

Interestingly, even this 23 second interlude has already been released, as the final part of a five track preview package.

7. True Blue

Songs like True Blue illustrate that you should not limit Slope to the rap metal or nu metal genre. Even though some parts of their song remind you of the Beastie Boys or Rage Against the Machine, the character of the Duisburg sound is more complex and embraces a wider range of music. This leads to songs which are rather easy to digest.

8. NBQ

With NBQ, the album presents another rather fast and aggressive song. You should state, though, that the bridge in this eighth track is leading to a certain slowdown. Some sort of hip hop-metal-meditation.

9. WHY SAD

Not as aggressive as NBQ before, but definitely not slower than its predecessor is Why Said. The single release has one of the nicest balancing between the influences from the different genres. Later during the song, Why Said creates some very special elements, like an almost crying vocal section.

10. Ain’t easy

The long intro to Ain’t easy feels a bit too long to me. Luckily, the song develops towards one of the most catching listens of the album. I guess that this one is especially popular among hip hop lovers.

11. Freak Dreams

The title track is the last single release featured on the album. It takes a while until the heavy guitars are joining in and kill the illusion that Freak Dreams could be an “ordinary” hip hop track.

12. Out of the blue into the black

Oh f*ck. The final song feels like an explosion of all the metal forces which have not made it to the album yet. While Freak Dreams is overall one for the hip hop fans, this song demands some headbanging.

 

Slope – Freak Dreams – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Slope – Freak Dreams – My View

I do like metal, but I am not at all into hip hop. In that regard, I was really curious how I will like Freak Dreams. I feel that the Germans do a really nice hop. The combination of two genres which feel quite contradicting works out nicely during these 35 minutes. Sometimes, though it is a bit too much and too massive.

Favorite Song: True Blue

 

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