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Dissent Theory
Symphonic and progressive rock. Written and composed by Eric Waller.
Project biography
Dissent Theory is the symphonic and progressive rock project of writer and composer Eric Waller. Its three-album story - Awakening, Reckoning, and Rebirth - follows a journey through awareness, conflict and its consequences, and the responsibility of renewal. Across fifteen songs, orchestral and rock arrangements give voice to questions of conscience, dignity, freedom, and shared humanity.
The trilogy
Awakening
Awakening follows the unsettled feeling that something is wrong - and the courage it takes to begin questioning it. Through dark orchestration, heavy guitars, searching vocals, and gradually expanding arrangements, Dissent Theory explores isolation, manufactured division, and the struggle to recover an independent voice. Its five songs move from a plea to be heard toward a declaration of freedom, making room along the way for doubt about the world and the beliefs we carry.
Reckoning
Reckoning asks what division costs when it is allowed to become conflict. Heavier guitars, imposing orchestration, and moments of stark reflection carry five songs through an urgent appeal for peace, reluctant resistance, devastating loss, and hard-won freedom. Its closing track turns the story toward the listener with a plea to prevent that destruction. Throughout the album, conviction is tested against a difficult question: can we defend what matters while still seeing the humanity in one another?
Rebirth
Rebirth explores the life that becomes possible when people begin choosing one another again. Warm orchestration, reflective piano, melodic guitars, and powerful choruses carry songs about dignity, conscience, mercy, and shared freedom. The scars of the earlier albums remain present as Dissent Theory looks toward healing and the daily responsibility of building something better. Across five songs, personal renewal grows into community, ending with the understanding that a freer future is something we keep creating together.
Album artwork is provided for coverage of Dissent Theory. Credit Dissent Theory.