Have you ever had one of those dreams you just can't wake up from? It's like the dream owns you and you have been sentenced to swimming through it's chaos until the apocalypse of time. This is one of those dreams. Soulbender is a dark band. Soulbender is a swim through the unknown. Not content with bemoaning the modern world, Soulbender strives to be its reflection; a reflection of us all. But the language of our world runs deep. There are many voices flooding in its currents and they are all fighting to be heard. The voice we most often miss, though, is the voice of our own selves. Soulbender got together almost by accident. Michael Wilton of Queensryche had been working on a solo project with two longtime friends, Wes Hallam and Dave Groves. Through a mutual friend, producer and engineer Eric Janko, Michael was introduced to Nick Pollock, formerly the singer and guitarist of My Sister's Machine. The rest, shall we say, is history. That history, of course, consists of two years of hard work. They hit it off so well, the band wrote almost two dozen songs within a short number of months but Soulbender was born slowly, and very much by choice. They refined and defined their sound until each of the four principal members felt it represented their vision of the band. In the end, everything glued together perfectly. Their album is a testament to their efforts and an introduction of Soulbender to the world. As the opening lines of Soulbender's debut album explain: "...ich bein dein schatten." or, "...i am your shadow." The listener is invited to follow this shadow through the album's ten songs and experience the world through the shadow's eyes, and its eyes are none other than our very own. From songs like Samsara and Rabbit Hole where the listener is confronted by vitriolic doctrines of intolerance and apathy to the erosion of The American Dream, Soulbender has something to say. Make no mistakes, though; this is not a dream anyone wakes from. This world is not under our control despite our best efforts and beliefs. You might say this dream is dreaming itself. Or, to put it more succinctly, this dream is dreaming us all. Soulbender is this dream, and this dream's tune is all too real.