Dreaming Black

The first time I heard Dreaming Black, I noticed that the bass and drums weave into a rhythm that never quite settles, as if the beat circles before landing on a sharp strike. It’s no mistake: that sway between the irregular and the punchy gives the song a weight that other power ballads of the era lacked. The main riff, which appears in the first few seconds, sounds like cold metal with a touch of dirty blues, and though the vocal melody is clear, the rest of the instruments seem reluctant to fully follow it. It’s as if the band were playing two different songs at once, yet instead of clashing, they amplify each other.

They recorded it in the United States in 1990, at the studios where they finished polishing what would become their debut album, FireHouse. The label Epic Records released it that same year alongside three other singles, but this track was left off the official list. Even so, the song ended up part of the soundtrack for The Wrestler, the film by Darren Aronofsky, giving it an unexpected reach. The album’s songs were written by Bill Leverty and C.J. Snare, and while Dreaming Black wasn’t one of the most promoted, the album itself went double platinum in the United States and gold in Canada, Japan, and Singapore. It wasn’t the massive hit of other tracks like Love of a Lifetime, but there it stands, enduring the test of time with a sound unlike anything else from the decade.