Dream Evil - In The Night

Published February 09 2010

*=Staff's pick	Immortal In The Night Bang Your Head* See The Light Electric Frostbite On The Wind* The Ballad* In The Fires Of The Sun Mean Machine Kill, Burn, Be Evil The Unchosen One*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Niklas Isfeldt	Vocals
Tracks	12	Fredrik Nordström	Guitar
Runningtime	47 Min.	Daniel Varghamne	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Peter Stålfors	Bass
Release	25 January 2010	Patrik Jerksten	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Hammerfall, Primal Fear

Dream Evil at their worst is a bleak copy of Hammerfall. But, fortunately, they are never at their worst anymore. At their best they are an excellent metal band with one of the most underrated singers in the genre, a fat production and a strong sense for songwriting. It is almost sad that they just do this as a side project from time to time, because when they deliver, they most often deliver good.

Another less serious thing are the lyrics, which still stretch between self-ironic 'heavy metal in the night' humour and just plain silliness. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. But either way you need to handle them with a great load of self-distance.

Moving on to songs, Immortal is a classic heavy metal hymn, which becomes brilliant first with the ending choirs, destined to be a sing-along moment in the live format. In The Night is, besides that it has got the honour to name the album, a parenthesis. Bang Your Head though is old Judas Priest, better than they've done it themselves since the 80s. The charismatic Niklas Isfeldt shows with some high pitch screaming, worthy the old Rob Halford, his impressive talents as a singer.

See The Light has a nice melodic verse, but the chorus is a bit weaker. Electric is, despite the 'metal is the only way' lyrics a bit rock'n'roll. On The Wind becomes a favourite, mostly because of the nice flowing verse.

The absolute highlight is The Ballad, which actually is a great ballad in all senses - but of course the lyrics. Which though are just genius in their category as an ode to the rock'n'roll lifestyle. Just to add the phrase "…when the children cry" out of nowhere is plain magic.

In The Fires Of The Sun is perhaps the catchiest tune, almost to the limit of repetitive. Closing track The Unchosen One delivers the best chorus on the album, but ends quite abrupt. One could easily had doubled its length, elaborated a bit more with the symphonic arrangements and made it more epic.

With a couple of years of hard touring work, Dream Evil could have been something bigger. But of course that would have meant a lot of sacrifices, that I don't think they are ready to make. Fredrik Nordström for example is first and foremost a highly respected producer. But let's take it for what it is, and I can not summon this otherwise than another massive piece of charming metal.

See also review of: Six , United , The Book Of Heavy Metal , Evilized , Dragonslayer

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	3	7	9	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - David