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Artist: Dale |
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Who are Dale? Well it's the brainchild of Norway guitar virtuoso Lasse Dale, who has envisaged this album for quite some time but what he needed was a top notch band to fulfill his dream. So he enlisted the vocal might that is Tony Mills, who also wrote the lyrics for the album. Along with Mills, Dale enlisted assistance from long time friend Tommy Granli for bass duties, then the final two pieces of the puzzle followed in the shape of Karl Birkely on keyboards and completing the line-up Kristoffer Oyen on drums. If you've ever wondered what mixing the likes of Queensryche and Dream Theater would sound like then think no more, because 'Screaming For Silence' is just that album. Mills has always been one of our favourite vocalist's, ever since his early days in SHY right up to his later solo material, his TNT stuff and more recently the China Blue album. But his Siam days are probably the best of Tony's releases to date, however that was until now. We’ve been waiting for an album that really shows the power Tony has vocally and this album is just that. With some quite outstanding vocal moments being equaled with Dale’s stirring guitar licks and the majestic keys of Birkely, all wrapped tight as bell around the powerhouse rhythm section of Oyen and Granli. This is just a great powerful and towering album. The album opens up with ‘A Conflict Of Interest’, which instantly blows you away with Mills at his powerful best and the Queensryche styling are instantly recognisable from the word go. However, this isn’t a copycat album of say 'Mindcrime', this is Lasse’s own interpretation of that sound, with swirling guitar licks throughout making Mill’s the perfect soundboard for this sound. There are moment’s when you could swear Geoff Tate has taken over the mike but only briefly. This fantastic album continues with ‘The Judgement’, another masterpiece of power and grace, as is ‘Psycosyncronicity’. Then it's one of my favourite tracks off the album the excellent ‘My Horizon’. A more up tempo piece on which Lasse’s really lets loose with the six string, and again it's just sheer class from Mills on the vocals. The album isn’t all guns blazing as from time to time there are a few gentle moments, one of them being ‘The Silent Guns Of Love’, this is where Mills shows off his melodic credential that people are more familiar with. ‘A Shadow Of Doubt’ once again travels along the more melodic road. This is what makes Mills such a great vocalist, as he is at ease with the more gentle refrains but still can deliver a heavy punch when needed, thus making this one of his finest vocal performances is a long while. It's time to bring a little Progressive Metal into the arena with the fantastic keyboard enthused ‘1968 Disease' before the social perspective’s of ‘Machevelian Perspective’. Another great track and one which highlights Mill’s song writing powers. This Herculean album continues with ‘Faith On Fire’, featuring once again that mix of Queensryche and Dream Theater which really shines on through before the album closes in style with ‘The End Of Days’. This is without a doubt a superb release. Let's hope this won't be a one off because what a terrific pairing Dale's and Mills make, they really shouldn't be restrained to just one album release.
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Tracklisting: 01. A Conflict Of
Interest
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