Allegories Explore the Beauty of Broken Dreams with “DREAMCRUSHER”

Experimental indie-pop duo Allegories return with a haunting new offering titled “DREAMCRUSHER,” a track that serves as both a sonic rebirth and an elegy for broken ambitions. True to its name, the single delves into themes of creative collapse and quiet reinvention, wrapping those reflections in an atmospheric tapestry of synths, beats, and ghostly melodies.

“DREAMCRUSHER” began as an unassuming ukulele sketch—simple, intimate, almost incomplete. But in the world of Allegories, simplicity is just a springboard. Using their signature process of collaboration rooted in trust and experimentation, the band allowed the idea to evolve in a unique direction. Without hearing any melody or lyric, Jordan Mitchell crafted an entirely new instrumental based on Adam Bentley’s original chord progression. When Bentley revisited the track, he responded to Mitchell’s reinterpretation by weaving in the final lyrical and melodic elements, resulting in a piece that feels both deeply personal and strangely otherworldly.

“I think there’s an almost conflicting nature to the song in both the overall narrative and the sound design,” Bentley says. “This song embraces the annihilation of dreams but also the beauty of what grows in their place.”

The song’s title, “DREAMCRUSHER,” isn’t just metaphorical—it has roots in Bentley’s own sense of artistic identity.

“I have jokingly referred to myself as the ‘DREAMCRUSHER,’ not because I’m cynical, but because of my own outsized goals and working with others who also chase wildly ambitious dreams,” he explains. “The song holds both the devastation and the quiet hope that something even more magical might emerge.”

This tension between ruin and rebirth defines the track’s sonic landscape. Allegories blend dream-pop melancholy with experimental electronic textures, creating a sound that is lush and meditative but laced with emotional vulnerability. Waves of ambient synths swell and recede, grounding the listener in a contemplative state, while flashes of processed vocals and artfully disjointed samples keep things unpredictable. There’s no chorus in the traditional sense, no linear build toward climax—just an emotional current that rises, fractures, and reforms.

The duo's ability to blur genre lines has long been their hallmark. Formed in 2014, Allegories first emerged from the underground as an experimental noise project. Their early output skewed abrasive and avant-garde, full of jagged sonic textures and unpredictable structures. Over time, however, their sound began to soften, absorbing influences from outside the noise sphere—particularly the underground DJ scene. Inspired by late nights DJing house and hip-hop around their hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, the pair began folding in new textures: deep grooves, ambient pads, chopped vocal samples, and subtle nods to classic electronica.

Still, Allegories never abandoned their art-pop core. Their music has always maintained a certain cerebral quality, even when flirting with dancefloor energy. That contrast is on full display in “DREAMCRUSHER.” The song balances raw emotional weight with heady sonic detail, offering the listener something closer to an immersive experience than a traditional single. It lures you in with its beauty, then lingers in the back of your mind with its emotional resonance.

And perhaps that’s what makes “DREAMCRUSHER” so affecting: it sounds like a transmission from the void between two selves—the artist before the breakdown and the one who emerges on the other side. It speaks to anyone who’s ever pursued something passionately only to watch it fall apart, and yet still dared to dream again.

For Allegories, this single isn’t just a continuation—it’s a declaration. A reminder that even dreams that collapse under the weight of their own ambition can plant the seeds for something richer, weirder, and more meaningful.

“DREAMCRUSHER” doesn’t just mourn what was lost. It celebrates what’s possible. In the capable hands of Allegories, broken dreams become fertile ground—and this track is the bloom that rises defiantly from the rubble.