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Dream Evil - United

Published Oct. 11 2006


*
=Staff's pick

Fire! Battle! In Metal!*
United
Blind Evil*
Evilution
Let Me Out
Higher On Fire
Kingdom At War*
Love Is Blind
Falling
Back From The Dead
Doomlord*
My Number One


Genre Heavy Metal
Niklas Isfeldt
Vocals
Tracks 12
Mark Black
Guitar
Runningtime 49 Min.
Fredrik Nordström
Guitar
Label Century Media
Peter Stålfors
Bass
Release 16 Oct. 2006
Pat Power
Drums
Country Sweden
-
Keyboards
Similar artists Primal Fear

Swedish heavy metal band Dream Evil are back with their fourth outing, following up the great Slaying The Dragon (2002), the good Evilized (2003) and the less good The Book Of Heavy Metal (2004). Their career started out really good but I think they have lost quite a bit of "it" toward the end.

This album is a step in the right direction again but unfortunately the really good songs, because there are such, are accompanied by some really mediocre, non-saying and even boring ones. Real aces like Fire! Battle! In Metal! (what a terrific metal hymn!), Blind Evil (catchy with a simple yet great chorus), Kingdom At War (groovy with a great chorus), Falling (classic structure and uptempo) can not save the album when songs such as Evilution (plain boring), Higher On Fire (standard song which never engages), Love Is Blind (possibly the worst power ballad I have heard), Back From The Dead (sissy with a bad chorus) are present.

The rest of the songs are somewhere in between "well...." and "good", all of them having one single good thing in them (a good riff, a nice bridge or refrain) but never more than that. Worth mentioning on a sidenote is the closing song My Number One which happens to be a cover version (featuring former Dream Evil members Gus G. and Snowy Shaw) of the track with which Greek artist Helena Paparizou won 2005’s Eurovision Song Contest. It is some sort of industrial metal with a refrain being close to, or actually are, pop music. I kind of like bits and pieces of it but I would normally not because it is weird and it should not work and it sounds more like a "joke song" than anything else.

The production is flawless of course, having been made in guitarist Fredrik Nordström's own and by now world famous Studio Fredman (In Flames, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, Hammerfall, At The Gates among many others). Almost the same goes for the vocals since Niklas Isfeldt has one hell of a suitable voice for this type of metal.

The band definitly has potential but has not reached all the way to a really good grade with this release either. And contrary to most professional and hobby reviewers, I refuse to give them any extra points for doing their thing with a constant flirt to the humorous side and with a "sparkle in their eye", as the saying goes where I originally come from. I have to admit, however, that the narration in Doomlord cracks me up the more I listen to it. But it is really only funny for me that knows swedish, but the rest of you can at least listen to the lyrics and try to figure out what it is all about.

If good and classic swedish heavy metal from the old school is on top of your wishlist for christmas, ask grandma to get you the new Hammerfall instead. That one is really good, whereas this only last for a few spins before it is worn out. It would have worked way better as an mini cd.

See also review of: Six , In The Night , The Book Of Heavy Metal , Evilized , Dragonslayer
See also: interview with Peter Stålfors

Production
Vocals
Compositions

10

9

4,5

 
Summary



5 chalices of 10 - Tommy


Related links:

www.dreamevil.se
www.studiofredman.com