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Artist: Dreamland |
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This it the debut release from new Swedish power metal sensations Dreamland. The band first grabbed the fans attention at the 2001 Sweden Rock Festival under the moniker of Infinity, and since then have dabbled with various different names before finally settling on Dreamland. Since then the band have been taken under the wing of Hammerfall's vocalist Joacim Cans, who has given the band a new lease of life and helped the band on their way. The album opens up with the metal anthem ‘Hearts Like Lions’, which is a magnificent way to open up the album. The vocals of Joacim Lungberk are sounding superb and the guitars of Johan Eriksson and Matt Renlert are simply majestic. This album continues with ‘The New Way’ and once again it’s the vocals of Lungberk that really make this album special. His vocal tones are well suited to the power metal sound. Some previous reviews have compared this sound to Hammerfall, and yes the similarities are there, but this can't be a bad thing. After all it did Hammerfall no harm and with Cans helping out with the production, the similarity was always going to be there. The album continues with ‘Breaking The Chain’, a very guitar orientated track with obvious metal riffs and occasional choral style backing vocals. The band gives great heed to melody and is none more evident than on ‘Destiny’ and ‘Die Slowly’, two really great tracks. The band slow things down a little with the gentle soundings of ‘Fade Away’, a great power metal ballad, if there is such a thing. The pace is then picked up once more with the stirring version of Stryper’s ‘All For One’, which is taken a step further with ‘Dreamland’ another masterstroke by the band. The title track ‘Future’s Calling’ has to be my one of my favourite tracks with Lungberk giving his best vocal performance of the whole album. What follows isn't too bad either. ‘Blank Mind’ is another slower paced song that brings you down gently after the majesty of 'Future’s Calling’, then as you just get into a relaxed mode the band pull out all the stops for the album closer ‘A New Dimension’, which simply rocks. As
a debut release the band should be well chuffed with the outcome of
'Future’s Calling', and although it was released late last year and
has only reached us now, it is still well worth a mention. Let's
hope in 2006 the album bears fruit for the band. |
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Tracklisting:
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