Artist: Mattsson 
   Title: Dream Child
   Label: Lion Music

Lars Eric Mattsson has been a busy man over the last couple of years, lending his talents as a composer and guitarist to wide range of projects.  This is evident in the fact that this new opus was composed and recorded between October 2006 and December 2007.  Now this new album sees the introduction of female vocalist Adrienn Antal and as I am a fan of female-fronted progressive style rock I was looking forward to hearing this.

The album opens with the orchestrated 'Prelude To Life' before the thunderous ending heralds in 'I’m Coming Home', with it’s acoustic/orchestrated beginning.  This song feels a bit ponderous, Adrienn Antal, is a very good singer but her vocals feel pedestrian on this song.  The inclusion of Bjorn Lodin (Baltimoore) on this album brings a brief glimpse of fire to the song.  The instrumentation on here is top quality, Lars solos swooping and soaring all over the place.

Next up is the title track, 'Dream Child', opening with a bit techno before Lars launches into the riff.  A faster paced number but with quieter passages, the inclusion of orchestration courtesy of The Astral Orchestra makes for a very diverse album.  The wah solo on this song has a 60’s feel.

'Killing Everything' slows things down again.  At one point I thought I was listening to a snippet of Epica without the death growl.  Another well structured song, great orchestration and guitar work.

Next up is 'This Is Our Time', a heavily eastern european feel to this song, the orchestration once again a prominent feature and some great pomptastic guitar/keyboard interaction.

This leads us into 'See The Dreamer Behold', with just a keyboard and Adrienn Antal’s voice leading the way for half the song it felt a bit laboured but then Lars lets rip with some wonderful fretwork and Bjorn Lodin showing what the song is capable of being.

'Until Our Last Goodbye' has a medieval feel to it but the interspersion of frentic guitarwork picks the song from the doldrums and another fantastic solo from Lars.  'Moonlight Dream' is a slower song with some subtle blues style guitar in there.

'Heart Of A Clown' has an orchestrated opening and features Lars best guitar riffing on here and Adrienn shows what she is capable of, a standout tune.  Then we’re onto 'Life In The Shadows', a dark, moody piece with some wonderful Yes style orchestration.

'Heaven And Hell Unite' combines heavy, gothic operatic and progressive influences and Lars just lets fly on guitar, interacting with the keyboards and orchestration.

And so to the final song, 'Goodbye', a slow song with an eastern european feel to it, with just Adrienn, orchestration and an acoustic guitar solo from Lars before the washing of waves signals the end.  

Now there are some excellent female vocalists around at the moment and there have been some absolutely stunning releases in the last couple of years so this release had to be of equal quality. Adrienn is a fantastic singer but I feel her vocals do not suit the whole of this album.  There are times when her vocals feel ill at ease with the song and almost uncomfortably pedestration.  I think Bjorn Lodin could have been used more widely on here as the times he does make an appearance the song is lifted somewhat.  Lars is a fantastic guitarist and on here he also handles bass and keyboards but I’ve always had a problem with his guitar tone and I feel that the sound needed to be more cutting with a harder edge.  This album had a lot to compete against in the genre and for me, it has fallen short of the mark. 

This is a good album and if you like your metal female-fronted with a progressive touch and some lush orchestral arrangements then I recommend you grab a copy.

*Review by Brassy

All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated.