Label: Century Media Records
Release date: July 26, 2024
Production: Fredrik Nordström
Album length: 41.24 min
Genre: Power Metal
Rating: 8.0/10
Dream Evil are a Swedish power metal outfit with a much longer career behind them than their number of albums would suggest. The band formed in 1999. On the first three albums, Gus G. (Firewind, ex-Ozzy Osbourne) played guitar and Snowy Show (King Diamond, Therion,… among others) sat behind the drums, which tells you a lot about the band’s potential. In that first era, they quickly built up a name in the metal community. Within three years they lined up three studio albums in a row, which today are a chapter of their own, with “The Book Of Heavy Metal” (2004) still standing as the centerpiece even twenty years after its release. In those early days the band also got its profile boosted by landing the support slot on fellow Swedes HammerFall’s “Crimson Thunder” tour.
Then the wagon slowly started grinding to a halt. “Six” (2017), the predecessor to the new “Metal Gods”, didn’t manage to get any further than the albums before it. Another seven years went by. And now, album number seven! This one once again shows a deft hand at ‘recycling’ the elements we’ve been treating as clichés in power metal for years. But this time Dream Evil have repackaged the whole thing really well and taken it to a level of production and songwriting that grabs you, catchy and convincing, with a few nifty anthemic marches. That definitely puts the band back in the spotlight, and once again makes them worth a wider audience’s attention.
The band has also embraced a certain ‘parody’ angle for quite a while now. You can hear it in some of the lyrics and see it in the videos, which, given the eternal curse of being stuck in generic music packaging, surely works in their favor, since that kind of ‘masking’ gratefully steers listeners away from overanalyzing the actual music. Still, Dream Evil don’t ‘put on the makeup’ enough to ever get as big as Sabaton, Powerwolf, Gloryhammer and whoever else… In a way, Dream Evil remain the ‘Swedish Primal Fear’, with Niklas Isfeldt as the ‘Swedish Ralf Scheepers’. Cross a bit of the Judas Priest bible with HammerFall’s revivalism from the turn of the millennium, and you get a pretty neat picture of what this band is all about.
The album is a power metal bomb in the classic sense of the word. Destructive, punchy, flashy and pompous. Aggression and musicality skillfully join hands on it. Longtime fans will surely welcome it with open arms. It’s one smasher after another. From the opening, attacking title track, through the venomous Chosen Force, to the anthemic The Tyrant Dies at Dawn and the sharpened, flashing Lightning Strikes right behind it. The more-than-convincing barrage doesn’t let up in the second half of the album either, with Born In Hell and NIght Stalker. The vocal lines are backed by the shouts of manly mobs (a trick HammerFall have used forever, though Accept are of course the ones to blame for it all, way back when).
Compact, thoroughly convincing ‘recycled’ power metal that grabs you right away. With a straight jab. Right between the eyes, goofily. This is what Dream Evil were after. Exactly this. A way to get back closer to their first era. And considering the not exactly successful use of that same formula on the predecessor “Six”, this time they finally pulled it off.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Metal Gods
2. Chosen Force
3. The Tyrant Dies At Dawn
4. Lightning Strikes
5. Fight In The Night
6. Masters Of Arms
7. Born In Hell
8. Insane
9. Night Stalker
10. Y.A.N.A.
Lineup:
Niklas Isfeldt – vocals
Mark Black – lead guitar
Fredrik Nordström – rhythm guitar
Peter Stålfors – bass
Sören Fardvik – drums
Guest guitarists:
Jonathan Thorpenberg (The Unguided)
Tommy Johansson (ex Sabaton)
Chris Amott (ex Arch Enemy / Dark Tranquillity)
