Artist: Rising Dream
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2008
Rating: 3.5/5
Rising Dream, from Zadar in our southern neighbor Croatia, have done a great job disguising what they’re really about. Going by the cover of their debut “Failed Apocalypse”, the band’s logo and even the band name, I steered clear of them like the devil avoids the cross, because I had a fixed idea in my head that this was some kind of trendy emo core or post-grunge quasi-alt rock band of spoiled country boys straight out of the first decade of the new millennium. And then, as if it had been looking for me on purpose, a copy of their CD lands from the Dallas label right in my lap.
Boy, was I wrong. Rising Dream are one of this year’s finest breaths of fresh air on the purebred, trend-chasing metal scene. As a debut, an album like “Failed Apocalypse” is exactly the kind of record every young band dreams of making when they want to get noticed and break through to a more prominent spot on the world rock/metal map.
Rising Dream build their metal reach on the basic platform of a thrashy/power metal riff “drive”. Add a keyboardist who is by no means just a bystander in the band, and the overall sound picks up a touch of progressive metal too. Especially when the keys launch into solo runs over the instrumental passages, using a sound close to the Scandinavian power metal school, and closest of all to the Finnish one. With the keyboards on board, the band also pulls off an effective bombast, typical of the opening and closing melodic motifs. The mood shifts especially well with the added keys, particularly in the calmer transitional passages within individual songs. The integration of singer Melissa Ferlaak works wonders on Dreams Come True, which is such a convincing example of power/gothic metal, with an effective contrast duet between a rough, mid-to-low register male voice and an angelic, operatic female one. It’s followed by the acoustic neo-classical instrumental Transcend, which smartly releases the noisy tension built up in the middle of the album and leaves the listener curious about what comes next . The band’s evolution has gone the healthy way, and by the time the guys went into the studio to record the album, they had already polished the individual pieces to a T. What I mean is that “Failed Apocalypse” has an incredibly bold range of motifs from song to song, as well as incredibly bold shifts between all kinds of moods. The title track Failed Apocalypse, which opens the record, is an interesting mix driven by a thrash riff, perfectly combined with Balkan melos. Once the mighty vocals kick in, the song gains a dimension that easily holds its own, quality-wise, against bands of this caliber outside Croatia. And that feeling of quality sticks with the record from the first second to the last.
The guys grew up listening to Iron Maiden (especially audible in the instrumental Spheres). The singing style in the choruses will tip you off too: it’s strong, melodic and commanding, and so are the twin harmony guitars, but all of it is reworked into a modern, trendy “muddy live” production. The guitars are tuned lower, and with that kind of riffing the band builds a massive curtain of sound, a seriously punchy sonic wall that floods the whole album. From the very start, Rising Dream masterfully fuse the thrash aggression and fury of chopped-up riffing with the melodicism of the Iron Maiden legacy. Add the keyboards, which are woven into the songs as an equal and an integral part of Rising Dream’s music, and what you get is an album bursting with ideas, one of remarkable freshness, which gives Rising Dream a spot of their own and a recognizable identity, which is what every band should be after. Voice Of God? Nevermore meet Iron Maiden, with a dose of Nightwish’s epic sweep added. A crazy mix that sounds tempting at the same time, doesn’t it?
A very important element of this album’s freshness and creative profile is the mega production, which squeezed the maximum out of the music and significantly helped lay the foundation for the album’s incredibly rich, voluminous “groove”, the base of its dark, blissful atmosphere. Rising Dream are a band with the potential to grow into a notable building block of the modern, healthy side of heavy metal. A fascinating first step has been taken, and going forward we can expect more goodies from this band, with plenty of creative breadth and the courage to go exploring.
Lineup
Josip Ruić – vocals
Goran Paleka – guitar
Joško Barbir – guitar
Ivan Kutija – keyboards
Filip Letinić – bass
Igor Goić – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Melissa Ferlaak (ex-Aesna Daeva, ex-Visions Of Atlantis) – vocals on track no. 6
Production
Denyken & Rising Dream
Tracklist
1. Failed Apocalypse (05:30)
2. Trivial No More (04:26)
3. Heretic Prophecy (04:39)
4. Spheres (04:27)
5. Hated 03:23)
6. Dreams Come True 05:41)
7. Transcend (03:26)
8. Voices Of Gods (05:04)
9. Storm (05:41)
10. Bird Of Prey (05:22)
11. …To Dream Alone (05:03)
12. Dreams Come True (acoustic) (02:37)
Running time: 55.21
