Brian Hunsaker‘s Where Dreamers Fall explains its nickname, the Car EP. After two years away from music raising twin toddlers, and after losing the friend who put a guitar in his hands in high school, Hunsaker returned with no access to a traditional studio. So he tracked the core vocals and guitars in his Ford Freestyle during lunch breaks, and the car became a place to process grief and record his return. He says the result bridges the technical ambition of Rush with the layered vocal harmonies of Boston and Yes, all delivered with the grit of classic heavy metal. Now based in Plano, Texas, Hunsaker previously built a name in the Seattle scene with his instrumental album Across the Galaxy.
This is an ambitious EP; every song is an entire movie in itself, with so many moving parts and varied textures and harmonic changes, it’s incredible everyone seems to be stretching their muscles as far as it can go, but it’s not excess for the sake of it. This power metal relentlessness is part of the overall message and narrative; it serves the story for the music to be this rich and detailed.
A great example is “Final Score” The song is a workout for the drummer, as always, but not just because of its fast tempo; no, there are constant groove changes, and the drums have to create spaces for the shifting tapestry of harmonic instruments, from big riffs synced between the bass and guitar to keyboard lines. It reminded me of that one John Petrucci quote about a band being a well-oiled machine. Because yes, in this case, with the theatrical music with chapters and key moments like this, it’s less about spontaneous expression, though that is present in the execution, and more about the execution of certain beats on time to harmonize with others like a sports team and reach that flow state.
Matt Dougherty, whose credits include Megadeth, Disturbed, and Staind, mixed and mastered the EP apart from a few tracks Hunsaker handled himself, including “Final Score.” Hunsaker sings and plays guitar alongside Cliff Chambliss on bass, Mats Eriksson and Tony DelVecchio on drums, Diego Palma and Raymond Hayden on keys, and Sergio Ortega and Joe Gentner on guitar solos. Hunsaker also played in the Dio tribute band Stand Up & Shout in Seattle.
