Axenstar - Where Dreams Are Forgotten

Published November 24 2014

*=Staff's pick	Fear Inside The Maze* My Sacrifice Curse Of The Tyrant The Return Demise Annihilation* Greed The Reaper* This False Imagery* Sweet Farewell

Genre	Power/Heavy Metal	Magnus Winterwild	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jens Klovegård	Guitar
Running time	50 Min.	Joakim Jonsson	Guitar
Label	Inner Wound Recordings	Magnus Winterwild	Bass
Release	28 November 2014	Adam Lindberg	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Axenstar, Pelle Saether
Similar artists	---

Axenstar's sixth full length platter and this Swedish band has more or less always dwelled in a backseat existence, even in its own country. Personally I haven't listened to them for about a decade I reckon and if I really try my best to reflect on past times, I recall this unit as being just one standard power metal act in a vast jungle of bands which performed this type of music during the late 90's and the early 2000's.

Therefore I am pleasantly surprised by its new effort, Where Dreams Are Forgotten, with which they have donned a set of tougher clothing with a little more powerful direction involved, than what I can remember, although they nonetheless basically stay in the same vein as before. They are able to bring out great melodies off their relatively fast performance. The music in total isn't about constructing a massive display of force or to have one tremendous blast succeeding the next one, but rather to have a melodic focus within a speedier experience. This record also feels a little youthful and perhaps somewhat tentative as well and one thing is for sure, it's definitely not pioneering in any way.

The vocal ability of Magnus Winterwild doesn't come out with great capacity and his efforts will undoubtedly never rule the world of metal and it might be questioned in terms of great and talented vocalists as well. Still at the end of the day, it comes down well fit to the music, which in my world is an important factor to complete an effort too. Axenstar has really stepped up to something greater than what I had expected and I believe that this release actually may astonish quite a few people if they only give it a shot.

See also review of: The Inquisition , Far From Heaven
See also: interview with Magnus Winterwild

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	4	6	6	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe