Dream Evil - United |
Published Oct. 11 2006
|
|
|
Fire! Battle! In Metal!* |
| 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: |
 |