Recorded and mixed at Machines With Magnets by Seth Manchester (The Body, Liturgy, Lightning Bolt), Wrong Dream smashes the boundaries set by the band’s previous work and represents a giant step forward. The core elements of Tunic’s anxiety-ridden sound are intact – a herky-jerky assault of pummeling drums, distorted bass, discordant guitar, and wild-eyed vocals, somewhere in the noise-punk territory between Amphetamine Reptile and Three One G – but Wrong Dream is the band’s greatest and most engaging work to date. The band’s tangle of dissonance and angst is laced with heart-swelling moments of melody and startlingly vulnerable lyrics, making for songs that cut deeper than what came before.
Adventurous and painfully honest, Wrong Dream is the sound of a band having the courage to fulfil its potential. While still rife with sounds that will perk the ears of old Tunic fans, and most AmRep or Three One G devotees, Wrong Dream sees Tunic assume an accessible new form – something closer in spirit to Fugazi than to anything that can be neatly boxed as noise-punk, or another such genre.