Beyond Reality

Last year, I had received their demo album from Japan from a good friend of mine there. Today they signed a deal with Spinefarm and are releasing their debut album called Beyond Reality. The good news is that the production is a bit better than on the demo and that the band delivers lots of great songs in that album, including the already cool ones contained in their demo. The bad news is that they tend to be a little bit repetitive. It feels like the whole album could almost be one long progressive song and furthermore the sound spectrum is a bit overcharged. What I mean by that is that all players of the bands are almost always playing a lot of things in the same time, giving some songs the impression of too much happening in the same time, and the listener might feel overwhelmed from time to time and search for a breath of air that rarely comes Don't get me wrong, since I also felt this way when I first listened to Sonata Arctica, and I really adapted to their style pretty quickly :). Beside that, Dreamtale delivers True Metal hymns of quality, with some very nice melodies and catchy choruses. The album starts with an almost rip-off of "The Rock" main theme, with just one note change, like Children Of Bodom (who add covered another melody of the movie and converted it in a solo) before them, it seems that this movie's soundtrack has influenced a lot of people (well, normal since the soundtrack is absolutely amazing and one of my favorites too). That is not a bad thing, but I tend to find it repetitive to hear the same melodies, even though I love that particularly one, especially in a metal version like this, though the intro rambles on for 4 minutes using it and it tends to get a bit boring to hear only a few instruments variation on the exact same theme for so long... I'm sure you see my point. The singer is fair enough for the type of metal, but he could definitely sound better, don't get me wrong : he's not singing badly, not at all, but he doesn't display anything special neither and he tries to sound like maybe too many different Power Metal singer (Domine mainly, but also Tobias Sammet from Edguy, and even Tony from Sonata Arctica in the song Where The Rainbow Ends). Though the influences from these singers is pretty obvious, their imitation is no replacement for the original and I think the vocals need more power in the overall sound and also more identity of their own. Female vocals on Dreamland are absolutely stunning and add a lot to this already excellent song ! The last 2 songs are singed by a female vocalist, and I must say that she impresses me quite a lot, her deep melodic voice is really refreshing and helps ending the album in the best of ways ! The guitar melodies are very nice, and the solos are quite enjoyable too. The riffs are not really brought up by the production and tends to be absent (because of the mix mainly, cause you can hear them when you concentrate). The keyboards are very present and they will remind you bands like Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica. Keys tend to be overused sometimes, and the fact that they are mixed quite in front might explain why it feels this way. Now, as per the songs, you'll find some very good metal hymns and killer songs in this album, and if you like bands like Freedom Call, Morifade, Sonata Arctica or Domine, then I'm sure you'll enjoy Dreamtale. Take songs like Refuge From Reality, Fallen Star, Where The Rainbow Ends or Dreamland ....these being killer songs. On a few songs, especially the new ones not contained in their demo, we can really hear that one of the major influence of this band now is Sonata Arctica. Very good surprise from these guys from Finland that delivers some really killer songs in this impressive debut album. The production is quite good, and the artcover is not much to my taste, though I really love the band's logo. They have a nice website (www.dreamtale.net) which is really nicely done too. It's dynamic, contains some clips of a few songs and all lyrics and you can add your opinion of the album as well. A band that can become much more interesting if they progress in a vocal point of view. Looking forward to listen to more of their albums. Don't miss that album if you're a fan of Sonata Arctica and Freedom Call ! Highly recommended.