It’s often said that music is a transcendent art—that it exceeds the sum of its parts, reaching beyond the mundane circumstances of our day to day. But if we’re being honest, an awful lot of music falls short of that promise. If I’m skimming the radio, there’s very little that might inspire even a shift in my mood, let alone an altered state of consciousness.

But every once in a while I’ll find a record that reminds me just how much power music has. A record that stretches my imagination beyond its usual limits and peels back the corners of the fabric of reality, even for just a moment. And if are once again being honest, a lot of musicians think this is what they’re doing, only to mire themselves in woo-woo pastiche and tired cliches.

In the case of Dream Unending’s sophomore record Song of Salvation though, those traps are avoided, in favor of long-form progressive death-doom metal that transcends not only its genre but its ambitions.

Song of Salvation Is organized like a chiasm: two sonic epics bookend the album, each trekking through sonic landscapes like a sojourn through different moods, tempos, and dynamics. The three tracks in between are more shorter and more subdued, the central track not even reaching three minutes. It makes the album feel alive, almost like the it’s taking a deep breath in between mighty roars.

The sonic palette is vast yet cohesive: guitars move between distorted buzzsaw drones, aggressive palm-muted chugs, ambient clean melodies, and soaring lead lines that feel like David Gilmour in space. The drums are powerful, even when they aren’t pummeling through metal heaviness. Low death metal growls are contrasted by a few powerful moments of clean vocals, as well as long instrumental passages—two tracks have no vocals at all, save some faint sample whispers. Synthesizers float beneath the waterline, buoying the rest of the sounds in a lush atmosphere.

But honestly, it feels so futile to describe this record in terms of the way it organizes sounds and ideas. While writing about music is always a bit of a fool’s errand, this record in particular makes it feel like tapdancing about architecture, as the old adage goes. It is a true journey, and as such it can only be understood by taking it. I would recommend this not only for fans of metal, but any open-minded music fan.