Dungeon - One Step Beyond

*=Staff's pick	The Power Within Tarranno Del War* One Step Beyond Against The Wind The Art Of War* The Hunger Surface Tension* Under The Cross* Epilogue

Genre	Power Metal	Lord Tim	Vocals
Tracks	9	Stu Marshall	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	SPV	Pete Peric	Bass
Release	21 Feb. 2005	Grahame Goode	Drums
Country	Australia	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Metalium, Paragon

I was just going through the great disappointment that was Metalium's fifth album when, as a sign from above, I got Dungeon in my mailbox. One Step Beyond is practically all that Demons Of Insanity is not - a truly great power metal album! Those are not all too common these days. Lord Tim (almost as anti-brilliant as Rock 'n' Rolf as an artist name…) is a great vocalist that manages to vary his voice with perfect timing. He is said to be Australia's answer to Kai Hansen. Actually Tim sings technically much better and rather like that Sammet-guy. But Dungeon is not just an Australian copy of German metal, they also add their own influences with for example darker, very distorted screaming/growling vocals here and there. The Art Of War is an example of this, and also the hardest track on the album.

The Power Within is like the usual "first track on a power metal album"-track. Tarranno Del War is an almost as typical, great mid-tempo metal song with a strong chorus. The title track loses the focus a bit, I think it goes slightly too fast for it's own good. The other day I was wondering why I constantly got Metalium's hymn Metalians on my mind. After all it was a while ago since I played that song. Then it struck me that the verse on Against The Wind is kind of ripped from that song. Surface Tension on the other hand, has some touch of Rage over it. Actually Tim yells 'the rage' at the end of the chorus. A great song with excellent guitar work anyway. Under The Cross has it all, the guitar melody, the double base drum, the chorus and the overall epic harmony with sing-along choirs. Among the cons is the scarcity of eight full tracks. The blend of influences (where, strangely enough, Dokken is named in the promo material…) makes the end result kind of unique and worth to buy.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	9	8

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - David